“One of the big fear-of-missing-out effects is institutional investors afraid the IPO window is going to reopen, and they won’t be in private” companies beforehand, said Forge Global Holdings Inc.Chief Executive Officer Kelly Rodriques. “We’re in that moment now.”
Buyers and sellers are coming to a consensus on startup valuations, which is the first step to jump-starting the late-stage market.
Forge Global CEO Kelly Rodriques joins ‘The Exchange’ to discuss growing momentum in the IPO market, secondary markets for investment into private companies, and late-stage private market valuations.
Data from Forge’s November 2022 report indicates that startups that raised earlier in the present downturn wound up collecting fewer down rounds and received better overall pricing than their more reticent brethren.
Painful decisions are coming for business leaders due to a public market downturn and narrowing exit options for startups, but eventually the best businesses will emerge from the current market stronger. That seemed to be the consensus from a panel discussion hosted on Thursday by Forge Global, a private securities marketplace based in San Francisco.
Forge Global CEO Kelly Rodriques, who I recently interviewed for a Barron’s Live event, notes that most private transactions in pre-IPO shares still take place at prices above the last completed financing round—but the premium is shrinking.