Reading The Market, IVP Cools Investment Pace

IVP is one of the oldest venture firms from Silicon Valley’s Sand Hill Road. In its 40-plus years, it has invested in more than 400 companies and has a 40-year IRR of 43%.

So maybe the firm — which has made a name for itself with investments in companies such as Brex, Coinbase, Slack and Twitter — also knows when to pull back in a cooling private market as the economy rides a rocky road to a possible recession.

Similar to its venture brethren such as Accel, Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz, IVP has significantly slowed from last year’s heated market.

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After taking part in 26 funding deals in the second and third quarters of 2021 — when the venture market reached record heights — IVP slowed that investment cadence to just eight deals in the same two quarters this year, according to Crunchbase data.

In fact, the firm took part in only one announced deal last quarter — a $65 million Series B to Paris-based business forecasting platform Pigment.

Fewer deals, less money

With deal count significantly down, so is the value of the rounds IVP has invested in recently. In Q2 and Q3 of last year combined, IVP’s more than two dozen rounds totaled more than $5 billion, according to Crunchbase data. The eight rounds it took part in for the same two quarters this year totaled less than $900 million.

It is important to note that it is unclear exactly how much money IVP invested itself, as specific stakes in a round are not usually divulged.

During those same middle quarters of last year, IVP led or co-led six rounds, according to Crunchbase. Those rounds included a $130 million Series B for Utah-based cryptocurrency tax and accounting software platform TaxBit and a $100 million Series C for Montreal-based edtech startup Paper.

For the same quarters this year, IVP led or co-led three rounds, including a $135 million Series D for San Francisco-based data reliability platform Monte Carlo that valued the company at $1.6 billion.

Although it is interesting to note, IVP already has taken part in two announced rounds this quarter, including Austin, Texas-based Jasper’s $125 million Series A led by Insight Partners that valued the company at $1.5 billion.

The other round IVP took part in this quarter was one it led, a $30 million Series A for Brooklyn-based remote tech startup Roam.

Those two rounds already put IVP past its total last quarter. While not a sign the private market is picking back up, it does show investors are still willing to invest in the right business model.

IVP declined to comment for this story.

Methodology

The total dollar amount of rounds the firm participated in reflects the total investment in those rounds, not the particular firm’s stake in those rounds — which is normally not released. All numbers relating to deals and deal size are from Crunchbase data.