SuRo Capital Corp.

and I will be your coordinator for today's event. Please note this call is being recorded and for the duration, your lines will be on listen only. However, you will have the opportunity to ask questions at the end. This can be done by pressing star one on your telephone keypad. If you require assistance at any time, please press star zero and you'll be connected to an operator. I hand you over to your host, VD Lee, to begin today's conference, thank you.

Awesome, thank you for joining us today on today's call. I'm joined today by chairman and chief executive officer of Sero Capital, Mark Klein, and chief financial officer, Alison Green. Please note that a slide presentation corresponding to today's prepared remarks by management is available on our website at .serocat.com under investor relations, events and presentations. Today's call is being recorded and broadcast live on our website, .serocat.com. Information is included in our press release issued today. This call is the property of Sero Capital and the unauthorized reproduction of this call in any form is strictly prohibited. I would also like to call your attention to the customary disclosures in today's earnings, press release regarding forward-looking information. Statements made in today's conference call and webcast may constitute forward-looking statements, which relates to future events or our future performance or financial condition. These statements are not guarantees of our future performance or future financial condition or results, involve a number of risks, estimates and uncertainties, including the impact of any market volatility that may be detrimental to our business, our portfolio companies, our industry and the global economy. That can cause actual results to differ materially from the plans, intentions and expectations reflected in or suggested by the forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of a number of factors, including but not limited to those described from time to time in the company's filings with SEC. Management does not undertake updates such forward-looking statements unless required to do so by law. To obtain copies of Sero Capital's latest SEC filings, please visit our website at .serocap.com or the SEC's website at sec.gov. Now I'd like to turn the call over to Mark Klein.

Thank you,

Willie.

The second quarter was a milestone quarter for Sero Capital. As of June 30th, we were proud to report an asset value of $9.18 per share, a 38% increase from the prior quarter and the largest increase since inception. This exceptional growth was fueled by broad market recognition of the value being created by our AI-focused investments. We believe this performance reflects a strategic foresight we have maintained in companies of this innovation cycle. For several quarters, we stated our belief that AI capital expenditures would continue to accelerate and that the IPO market would reopen, and this quarter our belief in those trends was affirmed. Corweed's IPO coupled with its post-IPO performance led the way. Based on news reports, OpenAI recently closed the second tranche of its landmark $40 billion financing round at a $300 billion post-money valuation, the largest private capital raise ever by a technology company. This second tranche was reportedly oversubscribed by approximately five times. In the last 24 hours, several publications, including the Financial Times, Reuters, Bloomberg, and The Information have reported that OpenAI is also in discussions to conduct a secondary sale at a valuation of $500 billion, which would make it the world's most valuable private technology company. Additionally, Canva is reportedly preparing for a secondary tender at a $37 billion valuation. A development that comes as Stigma recently completed a highly successful IPO, underscoring the growing public market enthusiasm for design software platforms. Columbia Acquisition Corp. II completed its merger with Grabagun, further building on our SPAC sponsor strategy success. Now I would like to discuss each of these portfolio companies in more detail, starting with Corweed. Please turn to slide four. Corweed is the foundation for our AI thesis and Serow Capital's largest aggregate investment since inception. In the weeks immediately following its IPO, we consistently publicly stated that Corweed was underappreciated in the public markets. Throughout the second quarter, we saw our thesis in Corweed play out. The stock price climbed over 200% and has remained well above its offering price. Corweed's share performance reflects continued investor conviction, which was powerfully validated by last week's earnings report from Microsoft and Metta. Both companies announced staggering capital expenditure plans dedicated to AI, with Microsoft forecasting a record $30 billion in capital expenditures for their current fiscal quarter. And Metta raising the bottom end of its full year spending ranged by $2 billion 66 and 72 billion dollars to support its own AI roadmap. Together with Amazon and Alphabet, these four companies are set to spend nearly $400 billion this year on capital expenditures. This historic wave of investment underscores the immense demand for GPU compute, affirming Corweed's critical position as a leading provider and the long-term value of its differentiated relationship with Nvidia. As previously stated, it's our customary practice to begin monetizing our investments once portfolio companies become public and our shares are freely tradeable. During the quarter, we sold approximately 40% of our initial Corweed investment, generating $25.3 million in net proceeds and a $15.3 million in realized gains. This partial monetization represents a significant liquidity event for our shareholders. We continue to hold the majority of our position, which we have marked at a material discount to the quarter end trading price due to non-registration of fees. We remain highly optimistic about the company's future trajectory. In addition to the sale of a portion of our Corweed investment, we've fully exited our investment and service titan for a significant realized gain of approximately $6 million. In light of these gains and our current liquidity position, as previously announced, our board of directors declared a cash dividend of 25 cents per share paid on July 31st to shareholders of record as of July 21st. Based on current portfolio activity and subject to board approval, we intend to announce additional distributions throughout the remainder of the year. Please turn to slide five. Transitioning to OpenAI. OpenAI has firmly established itself as the most transformative technology company in private markets. As mentioned earlier, based on news reports, OpenAI recently closed the second tranche of its landmark $40 billion financing round at a $300 billion post-money valuation, the largest private capital raise ever by a technology company. In the last 24 hours, several publications including the Financial Times and the Information have reported that OpenAI is also in discussions to conduct a secondary sale at a valuation of $500 billion, which would make it the world's most valuable private technology company. This comes as the company's traction with users has scaled at an astounding pace. According to the same source, OpenAI is now generating over $13 billion in ARR with projections pointing towards $20 billion by year end. According to the information, OpenAI now has approximately 700 million weekly active users across its chat GPT products up from 500 million in late March. This scale is nearly unprecedented and underscores OpenAI's unique ability to commercialize cutting edge research at a speed rarely seen in software or platform technology. OpenAI's remarkable growth has been supported by new enterprise features, GPT for business and deep research, as well as continued enhancement to memory capabilities and agentic functionality. Both a usage and revenue perspective, OpenAI remains the clear leader in generative AI and we believe Sero Capital is one of the only ways investors can gain exposure to this revolutionary and transformative technology company in the private markets. Moving to Whoop, Whoop continues to reinforce its leadership in performance and health technology. With the recent launch of Whoop 5.0 and the MG variant, long duration battery life, enhanced sensing for EKG and blood pressure, and novel software analytics, including health span scoring and Whoop age. These tools are not only used by elite athletes, but by military special operations, Fortune 500 wellness programs, fitness enthusiasts, and clinical research alike. These hardware and software enhancements underscores Whoop's differentiated approach blending hardware, health coaching, and subscription monetization. According to SNS Insider, the wearable fitness technology market is projected $7 billion in 2032, up from approximately $15 billion in 2024, reflecting the powerful tailwind supporting demand for preventative health tools that combine robust analytics with personalized insights. We remain confident in our position and are excited to continue as long-term investors in what we see as a uniquely positioned player in the wearable health space. Please turn to slide six. Turning to Columbia Acquisition Corp. II. In June, Columbia completed its merger with Metroplex Trading, the parent company of Gravagon. This transaction marks an important milestone in our SPAC-sponsored strategy and validates our ability to source and execute unique opportunities outside of traditional investment channels. With the addition of Donald Trump Jr. to the board and strong consumer demand across the platform, is well positioned to succeed as a newly public company. This outcome is another testament to the success of our SPAC-sponsored strategy, which we established several years ago. As with all our public positions, we will monetize our investment based on market condition and as lockup agreements expire. Moving on to Canva. Canva continues to build on its position as a category-defining visual communications platform. It has expanded its visual suite, introduced new AI-powered design tools, and maintained strong expertise traction. According to several industry sources, Canva is exploring a secondary tender offer at a $37 billion valuation. If completed, this would represent a meaningful uplift from previous private market valuations and reflects continued investor confidence in the company's long-term. According to Capital Brief, Canva's annual recurring revenue is now $3.3 billion of 50% since May 2024, with 240 million monthly active users. These updates come amid a constructive public market environment for design software companies. Last week, Figma's stock more than tripled in its New York Stock Exchange debut, valuing the company at roughly a $50 billion valuation. The blockbuster reception highlights the significant public market appetite for higher-growth design software companies like

Canva. Please turn to slide seven. Turning to our recent investment activity, as previously

announced, during the quarter, we made a $5 million investment in Plaid through a sole limited partnership interest in 1789 Capital Nirvana II LP. Plaid remains a foundational pillar of the FinTech ecosystem, connecting over 12,000 financial institutions to more than 8,000 digital apps with over 500 million linked accounts and over 100 end users globally. Our investment was part of Plaid's $575 million financing led by Franklin Templeton, Fidelity, NEA, Ribbit, and others. According to TechCrunch, the round was completed at a $6.1 billion post-money valuation. According to CNBC, this financing is anticipated to be Plaid's latest private financing before the company lifts on the public markets. According to PitchBook, the financing brings the total capital raised to date by Plaid to approximately $1.3 billion. Plaid is widely regarded as one of the most critical pieces of infrastructure in the US financial data stack with an estimated two thirds of US FinTechs relying on its API network. According to JP Morgan, Plaid generated approximately $300 million in revenue in 2024, supported by consistent double digit growth in its core business. New projects like the Fidelity App, and other products that represented over 20% of ARR rating margins. According to the same source, Plaid is pursuing a more than $30 billion total addressable market across adjacent verticals, including real-time payments, alternative credit data, and fraud prevention. Recent product launches such as Plaid Protect, a real-time fraud intelligence system, and Plaid Transfer, a platform supporting bank payments across multiple rails, highlight the company's ability to innovate atop its core infrastructure. We believe Plaid's developer-centric platform and expanding network effects position it to remain a category-defining leader in open finance. Additionally, subsequent to quarter-end, we made a $250,000 follow-on investment in Liquid Death. This investment follows reports that Liquid Death will be entering the energy drink category with their first release anticipated in January. The new beverage will feature no sugar, no artificial sweeteners, added vitamins, and what the company calls an un-extreme caffeine level of 100 milligrams per can, positioned for you alternative in a market increasingly saturated with high caffeine options. According to Liquid Death, energy drinks are the most common other item in the physical and digital shopping baskets of Liquid Death buyers. According to the Wall Street Journal and Mintel Analytics, better for you options will include some low sugar but high caffeine drinks, so the biggest increase in consumption in the larger estimated $24 billion energy drink category between January 23 and 24. We're excited to see Liquid Death continue to expand into new product categories and capitalize on creative collaborations. This is an exciting period for Cerro Capital. A quarter and nearly a third of our investment portfolio at fair value was directly in AI infrastructure companies, and we believe we are in the early innings of seeing these investments pay off. With meaningful liquidity from our partial core-weave sale and our full exit of service tighten, accelerating capital expenditures, the reopening of the IPO market, and continued progress across key portfolio companies, OpenAI, Whoop, Canva, and the successful completion of the Columbia transaction, we believe our portfolio is well positioned to create substantial long-term value to our shareholders. Thank you for your attention, and with that, I'll hand it over to Alison Green, our chief financial officer.

Thank you, Mark. I would like to follow Mark's update with a high-level review of our investment portfolio as its quarter end, and a more detailed review of our second quarter financial results, including our liquidity as of June 30th. I'll begin with a brief highlight of investment activity and portfolio company realizations during the second quarter and subsequent to quarter end, and the investment theme breakdown of our investment portfolio at the end of the second quarter. Date on the recently declared and paid cash dividend, and our intentions related to distributions for the remainder of 2025. Please turn to slide eight. Slide eight. As Mark mentioned, on April 4th, we made an approximately $5 million investment in the class A common shares of Plaid through 1789 Capital Nirvana II LP, an SPD in which Soro Capital Corp is the sole limited partner. The $5 million does not include a 7% or $350,000 origination fee paid at the time of investment and other capitalized costs of the transaction. Additionally, we have prepaid and will continue to prepay expenses of the SPD on an annual basis. During the second quarter, we sold the entirety of our 22040 direct public common shares of Core Weave for net proceeds of approximately $25.3 million, resulting in a realized gain of approximately $15.3 million. The exited shares represented approximately 40% of our original initial aggregate $25 million investment in Core Weave alongside our $50 million investment in CW Opportunity II LP. CW Opportunity II LP is an SPD for which the class A membership interest is solely invested in the class A common shares of Core Weave. Soro Capital is invested in the class A common shares of Core Weave through its investment in the class A membership interest of CW Opportunity II LP. As of quarter end and to date, we continue to have exposure to Core Weave through our investment in CW Opportunity II LP. During the quarter, following the lockup release of our common shares in June, we fully exited our position in service titan by selling the 151,515 common shares for net proceeds of approximately $15.9 million, resulting in a realized gain of approximately $5.9 million. Finally, subsequent quarter end, we made a $250,000 fall on investment in Liquid Desk Convertible Note. The note bears an interest rate of .12% and matures in June, 2028. This brings our aggregate investment to date in Liquid Desk to approximately $10.3 million. I would now like to turn to our portfolio as a quarter end. Please turn to slide nine. Our top five investments as of June 30th were Core Weave, OpenAI, WUPE, Columbia Sponsor II, and Larnio. These positions accounted for approximately 53 percent with their value. Additionally, as of June 30th, our top 10 positions accounted for approximately 76% of the investment portfolio. Please turn to slide 10. Segmented by seven general investment themes, the top allocation of our investment portfolio at June 30th was to artificial intelligence infrastructure and applications, representing approximately 33% of the investment portfolio at fair value. Financial technology and services and consumer goods and services were the next two largest categories with approximately 17% and 16% of our portfolio, respectively. 14% of our portfolio was invested in software as a service and education technology companies accounted for approximately 10% of our portfolio. The logistics and supply chain category accounted for approximately 8% of the fair value of our portfolio, and Serial Capital Sports accounted for approximately 2% as of June 30th. Please turn to slide 11. We ended the second quarter of 2025 with a net asset value of approximately $219.4 million, or $9.18 per share, which is consistent with our financial reporting. This compares to an NAB of $6.66 per share as of March 31st, and $6.68 per share as of year end 2024. The increase was driven primarily by valuation appreciation in several of our top positions and realized gains from the sale of a portion of our core weave investment. More specifically, the increase in NAB per share from $6.66 at the end of the first quarter was primarily attributable to a $1.88 per share increase driven by the net unrealized appreciation of our investment portfolio during the second quarter, and an 89 cent per share increase due to net realized gain on sale investments during the second quarter. These increases were offset by a 16 cent per share decrease due to net investment loss, and a nine cent per share decrease from the impact of stock weave compensation during the quarter. At June 30th, and currently, there are ,888,107 shares of the company's common stock outstanding. Regarding our liquidity as of quarter end, we ended the quarter with approximately $52.4 million of liquid assets, including approximately $49.9 million in cash and approximately $2.5 million in unrestricted public securities. Not included in our unrestricted public securities are approximately $40.9 million of public securities subject to lockup or other sales restrictions as a core weave. This represents our investment in core weave via the class A interest of CW Opportunity 2 LP. As I mentioned previously, CW Opportunity 2 LP is an SPV for which the class A membership interest is solely invested in the class A common shares of core weave. Serial capital confirmed as of June 30th, 2025, the underlying class A common shares held by CW Opportunity 2 LP were not registered and are therefore subject to certain restrictions on sale or transfer for which serial capital has applied a discount to the closing share price as of the reporting date. As such, at quarter end, our CW Opportunity 2 LP position was materially discounted. Finally, I'd like to conclude with additional commentary on our recent dividend declaration and payment. Subsequent on July 3rd, Serial Capital's board of directors declared a cash dividend paid on July 31st to the company's common stockholders of record as the close of business on July 21st. This dividend is generally attributable to the successful monetizations of certain of Serial Capital's public securities and other promising developments in our investment portfolio. As Mark mentioned, based on ongoing portfolio activity, we anticipate declaring additional distributions throughout the year. The date of declaration and amount of any dividends or distributions, including any future distributions are subject to the sole discussion of Serial Capital's board of directors. The aggregate amount of distributions declared and paid by Serial Capital will be fully taxable to stockholders. The tax character of Serial Capital's distributions cannot be finally determined until the close of Serial Capital's taxable year, which is December 31st. Serial Capital will report the actual tax characteristics of each year's distributions annually to stockholders and the IRS on form 1099-CIV subsequent to year end. As a result of the 25 cent per share cash dividend paid on July 31st to stockholders of record as of close of business on July 21st, effective as of July 21st, the conversion rate applicable to the .5% convertible notes due to 2029 was adjusted to $7.53 per share, or 132.7530 shares of the company's dollar principal amount of the .5% convertible notes to 2029. From the initial conversion price of $7.75 per share or 129.0323 shares of the company's common stock per $1,000 principal amount of the .5% convertible notes due to 2029, which has been effective since issue one. The adjustment to the conversion rate of the .5% convertible notes due to 2029 was made pursuant to the note purchase agreement governing said note. That concludes my comments. We would like to thank you for your interest in support of Serial Capital. Now I will turn the call over to the operator to start the Q&A session. Operator?

Thank you. If you'd like to ask a question or make a contribution to this call, please press star one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star two. Please limit to only one question per person. You will be advised when to ask your questions. We will take our first question from Brian McKenna, citizens, your line is open, please go ahead.

Thanks, good evening, Mark and Allison, and congrats on all the recent momentum. So looking at the public holding exits in the quarter, realize gains total $21 million in aggregate, that's roughly 85 cents per share. You only declared a 25 cent dividend. I know this will continue to move higher in the coming quarters just as you monetize some of your additional, that's about the thought process a little bit around the second quarter dividend. And then is there any way to think about the potential size of dividends in three Q and four Q based on the current mark to market of your public positions today?

Thanks, Brian, and again,

for your ongoing support and efforts around your coverage with us. As we've done in the past, we sort of, we project out what we think our dividend cadence will be in sizing. As you remarked, we did take a reasonable amount of gains to date. We also did come into the year with realized losses, which we've overcome. As we look forward, we expect to have ongoing monetizations of some of our public companies that will become freely tradeable, Corweave being one of them, the -A-Gun, Columbia A2, parts of that will be others. So we anticipate once we see how those monetizations occur to declare at least one and most probably two distributions targeting one towards the end of Q3 and another

as we get towards the end of the year. Thank you. There are no further questions on the line, so I will now hand you back to

your host for closing remarks.

Thank you all for attending our call. This is really an extremely exciting time for CERO. We're very fortunate to have positioned the portfolio in a way to take advantage of what is transpiring in the AI ecosystem, and we appreciate you joining us and being shareholders. Thank you very much.

Thank you for joining today's call. You may now disconnect.