CRV, based in Silicon Valley, plans to return to investors $275 million because the market for mature start-ups has soured.
Venture capital firms raise money — lots of it — and invest it in start-ups in hopes of generating big returns. One thing they rarely do is give the money back.
Yet that is what CRV, one of the industry’s oldest firms, is planning. The firm will tell its investors this week that it will return the $275 million that it has not yet invested from its $500 million Select fund, which is designed to back more mature start-ups.
The reason, four of the firm’s partners said in a joint interview, is that market conditions have changed for the worse. The valuations for start-ups are too high relative to their potential for a payoff, the partners said.
CRV’s decision is part of a reset that is happening around the venture capital industry after the go-go years of the pandemic. In 2020 and 2021, many start-ups and investment firms raised outsize funding, expecting the boom to keep going.
In the years since, the tech exuberance faded, and many start-ups cut staff or shut down. The market for initial public offerings and acquisitions — the main ways venture capital firms earn a return on their investments — has also been dismal.
Venture capital has always experienced booms and busts, but now, the boom and bust seem to be happening at the same time. While I.P.O.s have been infrequent and it has been hard to make strong returns for some investments, there is a frenzy to put money behind new artificial intelligence ideas.