This paper examines the steady migration of high-growth investment opportunities away from the public markets over the past twenty years and compares it to the concurrent growth of select private market investment strategies over the same period.

In the public markets, the researcher finds that a significant decline in delisting activity has been offset by a paucity of new public IPOs.

In the private markets, the researcher finds that “Private IPOs,” fundraising rounds exceeding $100 million in value, now exceed public IPOs in count. Additionally, new secondary investment strategies are shown to create a new conflict of interest between founders and investors.

Together, these observations indicate that small investments that once drove portfolio returns for everyday investors are now only available to large investors in the private markets. This has led to private inequity – a marked split in between those who can and can’t access the private markets.

Links to Project Materials:

Professional Projects 2020, Whitman School of Management 2020, 2020