糖心视频

Generally speaking, when a startup gets acquired by a big company or goes public at a valuation over a billion dollars, prior backers at all stages come out ahead.

This year, however, that often hasn鈥檛 been the case. Because private company valuations hit such frothy heights a couple years ago, even good-sized exits are commonly well below peak.

To illustrate, we used data to assemble a list of the as well as . We then pulled out examples of multiple cases where exit valuations were well below peak, charted below

Small to moderate markdowns

The discounts to peak pricing aren鈥檛 always vast. Marketing automation provider , for instance, went public at a valuation only a couple percentage points below its boom-era high.

A more middle-of-the-road outcome was for , a provider of video collaboration tools that sold to for $975 million in October. While that looks like a large purchase by 2023 standards, Loom actually sold at a discount from a $1.5 billion peak valuation for its Series C in 2021.

There was a slightly larger discount from peak for 鈥檚 $435 million sale to . Boston-based Corvus raised a $100 million Series C led by in March 2021 at a $750 million valuation.

Bigger discounts

Others saw larger drops.

Probably the best-known case in point is . The grocery delivery platform hit a peak valuation of $39 billion as a private company, but reduced that number on multiple occasions as it prepped for a public offering under less giddy market conditions.

By the time it actually did IPO in September, the company went out with an initial valuation of $8.3 billion. Since then, it鈥檚 sunk to around $6.6 billion.

Another once-vaunted unicorn, digital mortgage provider , saw an even steeper valuation drop as the climate turned and refinance activity on its platform shriveled in the wake of interest rate hikes.

After hitting a roughly $4 billion valuation in 2020, the company prepped to go public via a SPAC merger in 2021 at a $7.7 billion value. In August, when Better finally did make it to market, it was worth a tiny fraction of that sum. Since then, it鈥檚 sunk further, with a recent market cap around $360 million.

Still, there were big wins too

Despite the breadth of post-peak markdowns, we have seen some exits that look strong for investors at all stages.

Among these is game developer , acquired by for $4.9 billion in April in what ranks as the largest deal of the year.

, a developer of obesity drugs that agreed to acquire in July for up to $1.93 billion, looks like another big win. It鈥檚 a big number considering that Oakland, California-based Versanis was only founded in 2021. That year, the company raised its only known venture round, a $70 million Series A led聽 by and .

Backers of generative AI startup also came out ahead after signed a definitive agreement in June to acquire the company for $1.3 billion. Previously, San Francisco-based MosaicML had reportedly raised $64 million since launching in 2021.

Can鈥檛 always get what you want

Overall, the exit numbers aren鈥檛 too surprising given the current market climate. Venture investment is down sharply from 2021 and 2022 levels, and startup valuations are broadly lower as well.

Of course, there will always be hot companies and hot sectors, like generative AI and obesity therapeutics, where large and lucrative exits still happen.

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