Dealmaking discussions are picking up even as public market volatility surrounds the enterprise tech and software market, says Matt Jacobson, a partner at Iconiq.
Driving the news: Jacobson and Iconiq recently led the $120 million Series C for AI analytics firm Omni, which valued it at $1.5 billion.
Flashback: Iconiq has deep roots in enterprise tech, investing in companies such as Snowflake and Datadog, and newer AI-native firms such as agentic AI company Sierra and legal tech startup Legora.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Axios Pro: How are you able to value AI enterprise tech companies that are ramping up revenue so quickly?
- "With Omni, I could touch it and feel it. It's revenue from real customers that we talk to, and they're getting tremendous business value.
- "I think the most difficult job for us is to look past just revenue growth and revenue entirely, and kind of think about the products, the customer experience and how that extrapolates. When I look at something like Anthropic I feel exceptionally strongly about that. There are other places in the landscape where I think it's weaker."
Where on the enterprise front are you looking to invest?
- "We're looking at things in terms of the application of AI to finance, both in terms of what was traditionally called financial technology, but also in terms of software products that drive finance functions.
- "There's an incredible trend in terms of inference and growth around that. We have not made investments behind that, but it seems to be a very exciting theme that feels like it'll continue to grow."
Will M&A pick up in enterprise tech with the current volatility in the market?
- "Last week, the biggest thing in my mind was this Cursor acquisition in terms of xAI, or whatever structure kind of fits that model, so that would argue that there's a lot of health.… I think in the back of AI we're starting to see consolidation. The labs seem to be making pretty regular acquisitions in terms of more, smaller teams … so you're starting to see M&A activity.
- "We also see a lot of M&A interest across the portfolio in terms of dialogues, discussions, rumors.… The number of M&A discussions feels like it's picking up a little."
Do you expect the IPO market to pick up as well for enterprise tech?
- "There's a lot of rumor in terms of a lot of large-scale IPO companies. And so some companies have not wanted to go out on the front of that, but on the back of that you could see interesting opportunities."
Iconiq has been investing before the current AI revolution. How has it defended its portfolio against what AI is doing to enterprise tech?
- "The question is how quickly can you move?
- "I see a lot of green shoots in terms of portfolio companies growing meaningful AI businesses. I see the power in terms of coding tools of increasing velocity and making better software. And so we're quite optimistic. I think the sense of urgency is high, but we're quite optimistic."
