Just how backed up are the venture capital markets today? Imagine a traffic jam in which every car is worth a billion dollars of illiquid capital. Now imagine that there are 1,000 cars in that traffic jam. Finally, realize that the 1,000 billion-dollar cars in front of you are only part of the issue.
That’s what a recent data analysis indicates is happening today in one critical venture capital market. The value of the most mature startups in the United States that need to find an exit neared the $1 trillion mark through Q3 2023, according to a recent PitchBook analysis.
The figure underscores how weak the exit climate has been over the last two years, and highlights the sheer mass of illiquid equity investments made into startups that call the United States home.