Late-stage, venture-backed tech companies significantly outperformed the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Technology Index in the fourth quarter of 2018, according to the SharesPost US Private Growth Index.
The Index, composed of 106 companies, rose 10.9 per cent in the fourth quarter from the third quarter of 2018. The S&P 500 fell 14.3 per cent in the fourth quarter, and the Dow Jones US Technology Index declined 17.9 per cent from the third quarter of 2018.
Preliminary data for the first quarter of 2019 indicate that the SharesPost Index has increased 11 per cent compared to a 4.2 per cent gain in the S&P 500 and a 12.4 per cent rise in the Dow Jones US Technology Index.
“The late-stage, venture-backed asset class rose by double-digits in the fourth quarter, while the key benchmarks declined by double-digits,” says Alejandro Ortiz, Research Analyst at SharesPost, Inc. “This wide variance in performance and the uncorrelated, double-digit returns are a reason capital is flowing into this asset class.”
The performance of the SharesPost Index benefitted from strong primary funding rounds completed by Index components Instacart, Chargepoint, Coinbase, Auris Health, Netskope, InVision, and Snowflake. On average, the valuation of companies that completed a primary funding round in the fourth quarter jumped by 148 per cent.
