The U.S. IPO market is bringing some swag back to Wall Street. Thanks to a cocktail of economic robustness, market zen, and investor enthusiasm, 2024 is the best start to a year since 2021, an era also marked by the return of Bennifer, a cargo ship getting stuck in the Suez Canal and the #FreeBritney movement. Yes, it has been that long. According to Bloomberg, 91 companies have taken the public plunge and more than $20 billion has been raised in the first six months of '24. Though surpassing 2021’s historic volume isn’t on the horizon yet, "confidence is growing that 2024 is the bounce-back year that a slew of would-be public companies have been waiting for," reports Bloomberg. The second half of the year will be framed by high-stakes elections around the world. However, the bigger unknown is whether private equity firms—sitting on a mountain of assets they've been unable to unload for nearly three years—will flood back into the IPO market. We'll keep an eye out. 

2 years ago, Wells Fargo launched a credit card with Bilt Technologies, a fintech startup with big-name backers including Blackstone and Mastercard. One unique perk of the co-branded card is that it can be used to pay rent without incurring fees from landlords, and users can also accrue rewards points. With Bilt's partnerships with some of the most sought-after hotel chains and airlines, as well as its regular promotions and transfer incentives, points can be redeemed for even more incredible travel experiences. In the first eighteen months, over a million accounts were activated, many of them by young adults. Sounds successful, right? Well... last week, a Wall Street Journal report cited current and former Wells Fargo employees who claimed the Bilt card is costing Wells Fargo as much as $10 million per month in losses, reports Forbes. However, in response to the report, Bilt and Wells Fargo said something along the lines of "girl, no." Bilt CEO Ankur Jain took to social media platform X, saying the Bilt partnership has resulted in Wells Fargo seeing:

• 70% of Bilt cardholders being new customers to Wells Fargo
• An average customer age of 31
• An average customer FICO Score of 760

Not too shabby. When asked about renewing the partnership, a Wells Fargo spokesperson shared the following: "While still small, the Bilt card offers an innovative and unique rewards platform that has allowed us to reach new and younger customers. As with all new card launches, it takes multiple years for the initial launch to pay off and while we are in the early stages of our partnership, we look forward to continuing to work together to deliver a great value for our customers and make sure it’s a win for both Bilt and Wells Fargo." I guess we have our answer. 

It has been one week since what some are considering 'the best festival to date' wrapped up in the French Riviera and in the words of AdAge, "this year’s Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity brought plenty of rain and rained plenty of drama on an ad industry in transition."The new creator class stole the show all week long, as traditional agencies and holding companies watched from the [metaphorical] sidelines. "The nature of the conference has changed and the people who have influence and power in the industry are changing," said Joshua Lowcock, president of a media and marketing firm. Simultaneously, tech giants like Google, Meta, TikTok, Amazon and Netflix made sure to make their presence known, representing the widespread range of emerging models in ad tech and digital media.

It's tough to sum up a whole week in a short paragraph, so we will let our friends from AdAge take it from here. Here are the key takeaways from Cannes 2024.