VC as an Asset Class

August 1, 2025 / Monica Zent
Venture Legal 11

“As Figma goes public, a turning point in the long-awaited IPO market recovery takes shape,” read Fortune’s headline. The IPO came after a planned merger with Adobe fell apart in 2023, with the design software unicorn’s offering valued at nearly $20 billion. This milestone reflected broader trends in legal tech investments, where venture-backed companies are increasingly shaping the technology and services used by corporate legal teams and legal service providers.

As Fortune writes, “… Figma could be the harbinger of a simmering truth: that the market for venture-backed IPOs is in a thoughtful recovery,” while also quoting PitchBook’s Derek Hernandez that should Figma “stumble,” “… this may reinforce some caution among late-stage VCs and delay other large tech floats.”

The IPO market is just one path to liquidity for investors, and for this edition, I wanted to dive into venture capital as an asset class, including:

  • IPO optimism and uncertainty
  • The role of M&A
  • Secondaries as “no passing fad”
  • Other novel approaches
  • The overall exit math and the “new normal” for Venture Capital

Follow Monica on Substack and subscribe to read the featured story:

Venture Legal Ed. 11: VC as an Asset Class

  • How the Legal Talent Landscape is Evolving in the AI Era

    By Monica Zent | September 17, 2026

    After returning from a whirlwind couple of days at LegalOps.com’s RLLB annual in Vegas, I caught up with many familiar faces and colleagues across the country while meeting others with whom I had only connected online. I touched on some themes from that event in my recap post but this trip yielded another striking observation:…

  • Closing the AI Governance Gap: Exploring Chief LegalX Panel Insights

    By Monica Zent | August 12, 2026

    Organizations are moving at breakneck speed to adopt AI yet the governance is having to play catch-up. This is often the case in the public sector but we’re seeing this in the private sector as well. The data on the state of AI governance speaks for itself. “As data breaches grow costlier, ungoverned AI creates…

  • As America Celebrates its 250th, DefenseTech & GovTech Take Center Stage

    By Monica Zent | July 10, 2026

    As America celebrated its 250th birthday, headlines reported on an investment “boom” in startups focusing on national security. 🎆 Ahead of the July 4th holiday weekend, Fortune reported on the “defense tech boom,” noting that VCs had deployed a record $19.8 billion into the sector across 262 deals in the first quarter of 2026, according…