Tiger Global sold off its stakes in some high-flying companies as tech stocks took a tumble at the beginning of the year — particularly some that recently went public. The firm, known for taking controversially big bets on late-stage startups paired with a hands-off approach, slashed its entire stake in Bumble, Airbnb, Affirm, PayPal and DiDi this year.
The paring back of Tiger's tech portfolio, first reported by the Financial Times , was evident in its quarterly 13-F filings . According to the filings, the firm also sold about 93% of its stake in Intuit, 80% of its stake in Spotify, Zoom, Robinhood and Peloton and about 70% of its stake in Coinbase. The firm also cut its holdings of Meta, selling off about 23% of its stake, and Amazon, selling off about 60% of its stake.
“Stock declines in our focus areas have been steeper, faster, and longer lasting than in prior drawdowns,” the firm said in an April letter to investors reviewed by Bloomberg . The hedge fund sunk 34% in the first quarter, after seeing its first-ever annual drop last year.
The drawback aligns with doom-and-gloom forecasts from some market analysts who say the industry is seeing early signs of a bubble burst like the year 2000 . Others advise against panic, forecasting only a small blip. PitchBook’s recent VC Valuations Report asserted that the VC market hasn’t seen a sharp decline in startup investing yet, but that sentiments are shifting and VCs are more inclined to invest in early-stage startups further from IPO than late-stage startups preparing to exit — the latter being Tiger's specialty. The average value of a company at IPO fell to $993.1 million, just a third of where it was in 2021.
SoftBank has also promised a sharp pullback in investment, with chief executive Masayoshi Son suggesting the conglomerate might cut startup investing by its Vision Fund by up to three-quarters. Combined with the news from Tiger Global, the industry could be witnessing early signs of what may soon be remembered as “ The Great VC Pullback of 2022 .”
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