I’m not aware of VCs using classic financial hedging strategies. In many cases, they are prohibited from doing this by their LP agreements and/or investment documents in the companies when they make an investment. While I’m sure there are some folks that do this, I don’t believe it’s prevalent.
The primary ways VCs mitigate risk are (1) time diversification, (2) stage diversification, (3), sector diversification, (4) pro-rata or over pro-rata investing over time, and (5) number of investments in the portfolio.
1. Time diversification: Most VC funds are committed over a three to five year period. The commitment period for most funds is five years – by spreading out the commitments over a three to five year period, a fund gets time diversity and theoretically smooths out some of the macro cycles. Most VCs who have been investing since the mid-1990′s understand this well as many funds raised in 1999 and 2000 were fully committed in one year. As a result, the funds were invested during the rapid rise and peak of the Internet bubble, resulting in horrible performance for 1999 vintage funds due to their lack of time diversity. The firms that committed their 1999 over a three year period vs. a one year period ended up making a number of investments as the bubble burst, including many that ultimately ended up being successful.
To read the full, original article click on this link: How Do VCs Mitigate Risk In Their Investment Portfolios? | Ask the VC
