Welcome to the new economy. VC money get poured with an exit at sight. The bags keep growing until it ends up on public offering.
By that time, the share is pretty much what it's worth. But 100 times round A. If all went well of course. Over 90% of the time, it didn't go well.
Who knows how that will end for Neo4j, but the investors have their eggs in many other baskets anyway.
What matters isn't showing profit anymore, not even significant revenue to justify further funding. All you need is some appealing growth figures, sometimes not even that, just a convincing argument that hyper growth is on the horizon.
At some point millions are put into advertising and a strong sales force to grow revenue many folds. In the enterprise market, the trick often works pretty well.
and the sheer size of these rounds always astonishes me for very specialized software products. 300 million bucks, that's enough to build a death star, what do they do with all of the cash
By that time, the share is pretty much what it's worth. But 100 times round A. If all went well of course. Over 90% of the time, it didn't go well. Who knows how that will end for Neo4j, but the investors have their eggs in many other baskets anyway.
What matters isn't showing profit anymore, not even significant revenue to justify further funding. All you need is some appealing growth figures, sometimes not even that, just a convincing argument that hyper growth is on the horizon.
At some point millions are put into advertising and a strong sales force to grow revenue many folds. In the enterprise market, the trick often works pretty well.