Exclusive: Hightouch launches tender offer amid AI talent war

Hightouch, a platform for customized marketing, has launched an employee tender offer that will value the business at $1.3 billion, it tells Axios exclusively.

Why it matters: It's not just slow IPO markets driving the recent tender offer frenzy — the AI boom is also playing a big part.

Driving the news: Stepstone and PeakXV will buy up to $30 million in common stock in the tender offer, at a step up in valuation from the $1.2 billion Hightouch netted last month from investors including Sapphire Ventures.

• Employees who have been with the business at least two years will be able to sell — lower than the typical four year requirement. Hightouch has also given employees a massive 10-year post-departure exercise window.

The big picture: This decision to offer liquidity earlier on is partly a response to the mass outcry from startup employees that — unable to cash out — had their huge paper gains in 2021 gutted.

• The other part is the heavy competition for AI talent: "We're competing against offers from OpenAI and Anthropic — and those companies have tender offers that make them look liquid," says Hightouch co-CEO Kashish Gupta.

The bottom line: Every company nowadays needs AI talent.