It’s a tough time to be a richly priced company that didn’t go public when the getting was good. Not only are there fewer later-stage players with the resources and appetite to support such companies — SoftBank and Tiger Global have pulled back dramatically, for example — but even secondary investors have lost interest.
That’s our reading of a new report by the private securities marketplace Forge, which itself went public in 2021 by merging with a special purpose acquisition company. Per the report, though 40% to 50% of investor interest on the platform at “various points” in 2020 was directed at companies that had been operating for more than 10 years, in recent months, interest in companies that are 10 years or older has dropped to just 8%.
Forge speculates that there are two reasons behind the ...
