Venture capital and buyout private equity are both "private equity" in the broad sense: illiquid, closed-end funds, 2-and-20 economics, GPs and LPs. But they rest on opposite statistical foundations. Buyouts are built on avoiding losses. Venture is built on finding outliers. The space between them (late-stage venture, growth equity, crossover investing) is where the 2020–2022 cycle produced both the biggest fortunes and the biggest losses of the past two decades.
What the study covers
- 1Overview: two different games
- 2How the boundary works
- 3Economics and key numbers
- 4Convergence: VC and PE are borrowing each other's playbooks
- 5Risks and pitfalls at the boundary
- 6How an expert thinks about it
- 7Glossary
- 8Related sections
Technical exhibits
Worked examples, checklists and case studies included with this study.
Crossover Funds and 2021 Lessons
Tiger Global, Coatue, SoftBank Vision Fund, mutual-fund crossover, down rounds, and what changed after 2022