Jefferies

The consensus in venture right now runs roughly as follows: the best founders have already found their way to Silicon Valley, and the biggest outcomes are built in one place. Don Stalter has built a fund on the conviction that both are wrong. He arrived at the Jefferies Private Growth Conference fresh off a flight from Tokyo, where he had just backed the grandson of Sony’s founder, exporting Japanese culture from a $700-a-month office near Ginza. History is on his side.

Most CFOs have invested heavily in the technology that governs how their companies spend money. The software governing everything that happens after a deal is signed, how they invoice and collect, until recently, has been patchwork: held together with spreadsheets, professional services, and institutional patience. Rebecca Schwartz, Co-Founder of Tabs, is building the platform she believes will finally change that.

The World Is Pulling Away From America. Japan Is Leaning In Yet Another Reason Why Japan is Emerging as a Defining Investment Story of the Decade “The world is cutting ties with America,” read a recent story in The New York Times. It’s one of many headlines declaring our allies are heading for the exits amid U.S. tariffs, attacks on NATO, and other disruptions to the longstanding post-World War II international order. Someone forgot to tell Japan.

Consider this fact: Last year, even as fundraising across private markets fell by roughly 17 percent, co-investment fundraising rose by more than 17 percent year over year to about $27 billion.

Artificial intelligence has been a theme at technology conferences for years. At the Jefferies Private Growth Conference in Santa Monica this April however, it was the reality shaping nearly every conversation. Few are better positioned to assess that shift than Brett Rochkind, Managing Partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers, whose firm has placed one of the largest single bets in venture history on the AI era. Rochkind, attending his seventh consecutive conference, was effusive about the event.

This article is adapted from Weekly Economic & Bond Market Insights by Thomas Simons, CFA, Chief U.S. Economist at Jefferies, and Michael Bacolas. Simons brings two decades of experience analyzing Federal Reserve policy and is a frequent commentator on CNBC and other major financial media outlets.

Markets By Jefferies Editorial Team • 5 min read Nestled at the edge of Germany’s Black Forest, Baden-Baden has long been known as one of Europe’s most elegant destinations. The UNESCO-listed spa town combines more than 2,000 years of history with a reputation for bringing together influential leaders, investors, and decision-makers in a setting designed for meaningful conversations.

In just a few years, the infrastructure secondary market has been transformed. Five years ago, it was a sliver of the broader secondaries business — a tool sponsors primarily used to manage liquidity for challenged assets and/or funds. Now investors are increasingly seeking trophy assets in the secondary market and through continuation vehicles (CV), which is just one reason why Jefferies expects global transaction volume to reach $30 billion, up from roughly $20 billion in 2025.

Gabriel Stengel knows the junior banker grind from the inside. He worked long hours as an investment banking analyst at Lazard before founding Rogo, an AI platform built specifically for investment banking and private markets. Today Rogo counts Jefferies among its users, works with the majority of bulge bracket banks, and sits at an unusual intersection: it is simultaneously a customer, a distribution partner, and a potential competitive target of OpenAI and Anthropic.

Financial super apps have been a dominant force in Asia for years. In the US, the model has been slower to take hold… until now. OnePay, a consumer financial services platform backed by Walmart and Ribbit Capital, is making a serious push to change things.