Amid the Silicon Valley Bank-led chaos of the last few days, Y Combinator made an intriguing announcement: It’s pivoting away from late-stage investing. It won’t be the last venture group to pull back from an expansion of its traditional investing remit.
During the COVID-19 pandemic’s first years, the pace at which venture capital firms could raise money expanded. PitchBook data indicates that U.S. venture capitalists saw their capital inflows more than double from $23.5 billion in 2012 to $51.4 billion in 2016. But investing cohort was just getting started: It further bolstered its fundraising from $60.5 billion in 2018 to $154.1 billion in 2021 and $162.6 billion...