It’s been another tepid year for IPOs. Market volatility has put exit plans on hold, and this new reality looks unlikely to change any time soon. As companies stay private for longer, this should be a rising tide for private markets — but it is also recalibrating the fundamentals of VC investing. The average hold period for $500m IPO exits is now 11.5 years, according to PitchBook, deepening the J-curve and testing patience on both sides of the table. At the same time, public markets have a habit of undervaluing VC-backed companies at listing relative to their last private rounds. Against this backdrop, the secondary market is moving from a niche solution to a core part of the liquidity toolkit, offering partial exits, portfolio rebalancing and price discovery earlier in the lifecycle. Is it time to rethink what liquidity looks like in private markets — and how private wealth can access it?
