Forge Investment Outlook Q1 2026
Reflecting on the roller coaster that was 2025
While it may not be obvious from market performance charts, 2025 was a year of real highs and lows.
The year began with eerie IPO silence through January, February, and most of March. That quiet broke when CoreWeave went public late in March, only for momentum to stall after President Trump’s "Liberation Day" tariff announcement on April 2. Multiple private companies, including Chime and StubHub, paused their IPO plans, and the 2025 resurgence appeared short-lived.
Even amid a persistent wall of worry, markets tend to recalibrate. While the private market is often thought to trail public markets by three to six months, 2025 challenged that assumption. Despite sustained public market volatility, the private market demonstrated notable resilience and delivered one of its strongest performances in recent years. Although the IPO window fell short of early expectations, momentum through the spring and summer supported cautious optimism heading into 2026.
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Market performance 10
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Primary market activity17
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Secondary market activity 24
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Mutual fund marks 30
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Exit activity 33
Andrew Alden, CFA, serves as Vice President of Quantitative Research at Forge Global, where he leads a research team focused on the private market. Prior to this role, Andrew launched Semantiqa, an investment management firm, which focused on the public-market growth equities space.
Shane Larkin is an investment professional with experience across private and public markets. He brings an analytical mindset shaped by his engineering and business background, with expertise in due diligence, financial modeling, and market research. He holds an MBA from Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Management.
Louis is a Senior Data Analyst at Forge Global, focusing on valuations and private market trends. Before joining Forge, Louis worked in corporate finance at Initiative Media and was a startup founder.
