February 2025
Article
5 minutes
Perspectives on Progress #13
Claire Shaw – Portfolio Director
- The valuations of private companies SpaceX and Databricks recognise their dominance in their respective industries
- Insulet's Omnipod 5 and new buy Enveda's AI-driven drug discovery are testament to the potential being unlocked by innovative healthcare approaches
- Meituan saw significant growth in 2024, with 90 million orders during peak times and international expansion through its KeeTa app
As with any investment, your capital is at risk.
SpaceX
A Giant Leap for Humankind
SpaceX has achieved a remarkable valuation of $350bn in a new deal to buy employees’ shares, making it the world's most valuable private company.
The valuation comes hot off the heels of a number of significant milestones the company made during 2024, including a record-breaking number of launches. SpaceX successfully completed 134 trips to orbit, which accounted for more than half of all global launches and shows its dominance in the space industry.
Starship – the world's largest and most powerful launch vehicle ever developed – also made huge progress during 2024. The Starship spacecraft has now launched seven times, reaching major landmarks in its development including reaching space, demonstrating atmospheric re-entry and achieving controlled landings. In 2025, the company aims to launch 25 test flights, advancing the rocket's capabilities and moving closer to operational status for potential Mars missions.
SpaceX's satellite internet service Starlink also expanded rapidly during the past 12 months, with over 7,000 satellites now in orbit and five million users. Starlink is an important growth engine for the business given the steady income from the subscriptions, which offers a consistent cash flow to help fund ambitious developments such as Starship. Starlink is delivering on its mission to transform global connectivity by bridging the digital divide and bringing the internet to remote and underprivileged areas.
The latest valuation solidifies SpaceX's position as a worldwide leader in space exploration, satellite connectivity and modern rocketry, and has catapulted the company into one of the world's behemoths.
Databricks
Capitalising on AI
Scottish Mortgage was delighted to participate in the recent Databricks funding round, which valued the company at $62bn, putting it comfortably in the world's top 10 most valuable private companies. Databricks managed to raise $10bn – one of the largest funding rounds in history – in a "substantially oversubscribed" round that included Meta, which joined as a new strategic investor. Databricks plans to use the proceeds to build new AI products, make acquisitions to grow its international operations, as well as use some of the capital to provide liquidity for current and former employees.
Databricks is fast becoming the platform of choice for helping organisations modernise their data and AI infrastructure, with co-founder and chief executive Ali Ghodsi stating that "we are committed to helping companies, across every industry build data intelligence".
The momentum and underlying operational progress of the company continue to be phenomenal. Recent quarterly revenues growth of +60 per cent has enabled the company to cross the $3bn revenue run rate and is anticipated to be free cash flow positive early in 2025.
Databricks is in the envious position of being able capitalise on the momentum in AI and this recent funding round underscores the unprecedented appetite for Databricks shares and product.
Meituan
China's Delivery Powerhouse
The Chinese food delivery and local services giant Meituan was one of Scottish Mortgage’s best performing stocks during 2024 as the company made significant strides across various of its business units.
The economics in the food delivery business have been going from strength to strength – 100 million orders a day looks on track with the company having reached 90 million during peak times in 2024. We don’t think this is the end of the growth track given the momentum in lower-tier cities and the value-for-money products on the Pin Hao Fan platform are proving popular with frugal consumers amid China's slowing economy.
The company's international expansion gained momentum during 2024, with its KeeTa app becoming the market leader in Hong Kong's food delivery sector in just over a year, capturing a 43 per cent share by order volume. Its strategy in reaching volume leadership in Hong Kong will serve as a blueprint as it now targets Middle Eastern markets.
Meituan's drone delivery services also made the headlines. The fastest delivery of the year took place at the Badaling Great Wall in Beijing, where a cup of hot pear soup was delivered to a landing spot on the Great Wall in just 6 minutes and 37 seconds. This swift service showcases the efficiency and capability of Meituan drones in meeting the diverse needs of customers, even in challenging environments.
Overall, Meituan is transforming itself into one of China's most critical delivery infrastructure providers.
Enveda
Accessing Nature’s Chemistry
We have taken a small initial position in the private biotechnology company, Enveda Biosciences. The company uses AI and advanced analytics to decode the complex chemistry of nature, developing novel therapeutics for unmet medical needs from plants, microbes and other natural resources.
The idea is elegant in its simplicity: 50 per cent of drugs currently on the market originate from natural compounds, but less than 5 per cent of existing natural compounds have been explored for therapeutic purposes. Until recently, the natural world was prohibitively complex, but with AI, we have the tools to analyse it in a way that isn't cost-prohibitive.
Enveda is constructing a comprehensive chemical map of the natural world, systematically cataloguing relationships between chemical structures and biological functions to predict and design innovative treatments with enhanced precision and efficiency.
The company's platform rapidly expands access to nature's chemistry, finding therapeutics approximately four times faster than traditional methods. This approach has already yielded a deep and differentiated pipeline. The recent funding will help Enveda advance multiple candidates to clinical catalysts in the coming year, supporting its vision that nature's chemistry is an excellent source for new medicines.
Insulet
The System That Never Sleeps
Insulet specialises in innovative insulin delivery systems for diabetes patients. Its flagship product, the Omnipod, offers automatic insulin adjustments every five minutes, eliminating the need for daily injections, tubing and finger prick testing. The automated, round-the-clock care it provides its patients has earned it the description "the system that never sleeps."
Backed by a recent landmark trial, the latest iteration of the device, the Omnipod 5, is the first FDA-cleared automated insulin delivery system for both type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
Insulet's market leadership is secured by numerous patents and the engineering complexities of its devices. However, this latest development strengthens Insulet’s ability to penetrate markets with low pump usage, supported by pharmacy partnerships and direct-to-consumer marketing.
This exceptional progress, paired with international expansion plans in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Israel, and Switzerland over 2025, underscores Insulet's commitment to innovation and global growth, offering a promising outlook for the future.
Risk Factors
Unlisted investments such as private companies, in which the Trust has a significant investment, can increase risk. These assets may be more difficult to sell, so changes in their prices may be greater.
The trust invests in overseas securities. Changes in the rates of exchange may also cause
the value of your investment (and any income it may pay) to go down or up.
Annual Past Performance To 31 December each year (net%)
| 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | |
| Share Price |
110.5 |
10.5 |
-45.7 |
-12.5 |
18.8 |
| NAV |
106.5 |
13.2 |
-39.0 |
10.1 |
23.9 |
Source: Morningstar, total return, sterling.
About the author - Claire Shaw
Portfolio Director
Claire Shaw is a portfolio director and plays a prominent role in servicing Scottish Mortgage’s UK shareholder base. Before joining in 2019, she spent over a decade as a fund manager with a focus on managing European equity portfolios for a global client base. With a background in analysing companies and communicating investment ideas, Claire is also responsible for creating engaging content that makes the Scottish Mortgage portfolio accessible to all its shareholders. Beyond that, she works closely with the managers, meeting with portfolio companies and conducting in-depth portfolio discussions with shareholders.
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