Sources: Tiger Global marked down its investments in private companies by ~33% across its VC funds in 2022, erasing $23B in value from its portfolio of startups
Context & Ripple Effects
Tiger Global's $17B public-market loss early in the 2022 tech sell-off was only half the damage: the firm had also spent the year marking down its private book, with its investor letter showing fund losses compounding from 14.2% in May alone toward a 52% annual drawdown. Today's WSJ report quantifies that private side — roughly a third of value written off across its venture funds, some $23B gone.
First-order effects
- Limited partners in Tiger's VC funds see their stated net asset values cut by about a third, following earlier disclosures like the 20% paper loss on its $12.7B fund as of December 2022.
- Startups in Tiger's portfolio now carry officially lower marks, which resets the baseline for any future fundraising or exit pricing at those companies.
Second-order effects
- When secondary buyers circled the portfolio, Tiger refused hundreds of bids as too low rather than crystallize deeper losses — a standoff documented in its refusal of lowball offers for private assets while managing $51B, including $37B in VC.
- The write-downs and slow exits feed directly into Tiger's fundraising drag: eight months into a campaign it has gathered just over $2B against a $6B target, per the fundraising filing, in a quarter when US firms overall raised nearly $12B, down 73% YoY.
Third-order effects
- If large crossover funds keep marking private books to market faster than startups can exit, the valuation-liquidity gap becomes a permanent feature of late-stage venture — forcing funds either to hold at marks buyers reject or transact at prices LPs won't endorse.
The trend: Crossover capital is being forced to reconcile private valuations with liquid markets, and the resulting markdowns are repricing how fast mega-funds can raise and deploy.