As tech stocks fall, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia, GGV, and other VC firms are buying publicly traded stocks of companies whose prospects they deem to be strong
Plunging shares of tech stocks have prompted venture capital firms to take an unusual step: buying publicly traded stocks. Tweets: @eghosao and @amir Tweets: Eghosa Omoigui / @eghosao : Some of us have been saying this for a while. Glad to see folks stepping up. Multiples may have compressed but opportunities haven't. For some public companies, the 10x opportunity is way clearer & more liquid than their private compatriots. Public mkt investing is a skill though https://twitter.com/... Amir Efrati / @amir : VCs flex new muscle: public equities. “We invest in companies on a 10-year time horizon even when we are making public investments.” https://www.theinformation.com/ ... @a16z @ThriveCapital
Context & Ripple Effects
This lands at the tail of an extraordinary cycle: in Q2 2021, non-VC funds were already in a record 42% of tech startup deals as US funding ran toward $150B for the half. A year later, with public multiples crushed, the arbitrage has flipped — Eghosa Omoigui's point that compressed multiples make some public companies a 'clearer & more liquid' 10x than their private counterparts explains why Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia, and GGV are crossing the public/private line.
The move was not a one-off: three months on, Accel, Lightspeed, Sequoia, and a16z were still buying public tech stocks as the private startup market stalled, suggesting this is becoming a standing allocation strategy rather than opportunistic dip-buying.
First-order effects
- Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia, and GGV are now competing for their own capital against public markets — a dollar moved into listed tech is a dollar not deployed into new term sheets, tightening the marginal round for private startups.
- Founders pitching these firms face a new benchmark: if a VC can buy Nvidia or Meta at a compressed multiple on a stated 10-year horizon, a private company must clear that liquid alternative to win fresh capital.
Second-order effects
- Fund structures follow the strategy — Bessemer's August raise paired its largest-ever early-stage fund with a $780M buyout sleeve, signaling LPs will fund crossover mandates alongside classic venture.
- The private startup market stalls further as the smartest buyers redirect toward liquid names, widening the valuation gap between public comps and late-stage privates and pressuring down rounds.
Third-order effects
- The venture/public boundary erodes structurally: by 2026, firms like Spark, Gigafund, and Greenoaks are buying large stakes in companies staying private longer without seeking influence — capital that behaves like public-market ownership applied to private assets.
- If the pattern holds, 'venture firm' becomes a misnomer for stage-agnostic technology investors whose allocation shifts between private and public based on relative pricing, reshaping what LPs underwrite and how regulators view these vehicles.
The trend: Venture capital is evolving into stage-agnostic technology investing, with public-private price dislocations — first the 2022 selloff, then companies staying private longer — dictating where the capital goes.