I
n August 2018, I wrote an opinion piece in Livemint, ‘The Rise of Late-Stage Venture Vapital’. In it, I shared a snapshot of the large inflows of private capital into successful late-stage technology companies. Sources of this capital have either been the venture capital (VC) funds from the stables of SoftBank, Sequoia Capital, General Catalyst, among others, or the venture arms of large diversified investors like pension funds and institutional investors. At that time, mega funding rounds of $100 million-plus were becoming increasingly popular, giving the companies ample runway to stay private for longer. While this was a conducive environment for companies, it did not leave the VC funds with many options to monetise their sizable holdings in private companies.
