VC as an Asset Class
“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
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