a16z, Accel, Bain, Bessemer, Kleiner, and, sources say, Coatue and Tiger are increasingly buying startup shares on the secondary market, often at cheap prices
It's a bargain-hunter's dream, and for sellers it's sometimes the only good option left. — Secondary markets …
Context & Ripple Effects
This is the private-market sequel to a move the same firms made during the 2022 drawdown, when a16z, Sequoia, Accel, GGV and peers began buying publicly traded tech stocks at depressed prices while new startup deals dried up. Now the bargain-hunting has moved into the cap tables of private companies themselves: Bloomberg reports a16z, Accel, Bain, Bessemer, Kleiner and reportedly Coatue and Tiger buying startup shares secondhand, often at discounts.
The timing matters because the traditional exit path was frozen — which makes discounted employee and investor shares the only good option left for sellers, exactly the dynamic the report describes. What started as opportunistic buying has since hardened into infrastructure: Lexington, Brookfield-backed Pinegrove and StepStone later raise billions for dedicated secondary vehicles ([[a:848364]]), and Accel formally registers with the SEC as an investment adviser ([[a:878186]]) to operate across these markets.
First-order effects
- Startup employees and early investors gain a working liquidity outlet while IPOs stay shut — selling into the very firms that already know the companies best, often at a discount to their last marked price.
- The buying firms pick up known-name startup exposure below primary-round prices, effectively repricing late-stage stakes without waiting for a new financing.
Second-order effects
- Dedicated secondaries capital follows: firms like Lexington, StepStone and Sequoia Heritage's Pinegrove raising multibillion-dollar funds institutionalizes what began as ad-hoc purchases, creating standing bid pressure on secondary prices.
- The line between lead investor and buyer-of-others'-stakes blurs — a firm can hold a position in a company it never funded, changing who sets valuation marks and who gets board-adjacent influence.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, venture firms consolidate into multi-strategy asset managers — the SEC-registration wave among Accel, Sequoia, a16z and Bessemer points that way — operating across public stocks, primaries and secondaries instead of just leading rounds.
- Secondary sales harden into a permanent substitute exit layer for private tech, easing the liquidity crunch that forced these discounts but also entrenching intermediaries between startups and public markets.
The trend: Venture capital is reorganizing from round-leading into multi-strategy ownership of startup equity across every stage of the cap table, with secondaries becoming the default liquidity valve when exits close.