Should investors access private equity through semiliquid funds?
An opportunity to access innovation.
For years, access to private companies powering breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, automation, and blockchain was largely reserved for institutional giants. This is beginning to change. A new wave of investment vehicles—most notably semiliquid, or evergreen funds—and a maturing secondaries market, are reshaping the venture capital and growth equity landscape.
The shift is opening doors for a broader range of investors—from retail to wholesale—to tap into the innovation economy. With more flexible structures and improved liquidity options, semiliquid funds are making it easier than ever to invest in tomorrow’s tech leaders—offering fresh avenues for long-term growth and portfolio diversification.
Private venture capital and growth equities fuel innovation
Venture and growth equity are types of private equity investment in companies. They target different stages of a company’s lifecycle and play a pivotal role in driving innovation.
Venture capital provides early-stage funding to startups developing breakthrough technologies, enabling them to challenge incumbents and reshape industries. VC firms step in with funding and strategic guidance, typically taking minority stakes and helping steer growth. VC-backed companies are often at the forefront of digital transformation, biotech, financial technology, and AI innovation.
Numerous examples illustrate the impact of venture capital in driving innovation. In the field of artificial intelligence, prominent VC-backed companies include OpenAI, known for developing ChatGPT and leading advancements in generative AI; Anthropic, founded by former OpenAI researchers and supported by major venture capital firms, which created Claude—an AI assistant focused on safety and alignment; and xAI, Elon Musk’s venture aimed at building truth-seeking AI models, which has secured billions in funding.
In biotechnology, notable names include Moderna, which received early-stage VC support and pioneered mRNA vaccine technology, which significantly reshaped global health responses; and Altos Labs, a startup exploring cellular rejuvenation and longevity science, backed by leading venture capital firms with reported funding exceeding $4 billion.
Growth equity supports more mature companies that have proven business models but need capital to scale—firms with solid customer traction, proven business models, and healthy financials. These businesses aren’t in need of rescue; they’re ready to expand. This funding helps accelerate product development, market expansion, and operational efficiency, turning promising innovations into mainstream solutions. They have a lower risk profile because the companies have already achieved products fit for market and are gaining economies of scale. Notable growth equity–backed companies are or have been, Airbnb (travel tech), Spotify (media tech), Uber (mobility), Canva (design tech and closer to home).
Private companies stay private longer, meaning much of their growth happens before they hit the public market
The road from startup to stock exchange is getting longer. In 2024, the median time for a company to go public stretched to 7.5 years—up from 5.5 in 2016. With private capital more abundant than ever, many firms are choosing to delay their IPO (when stock get listed), often achieving billion-dollar valuations while still privately held. For investors, that means much of the value creation is happening before companies ever ring the opening bell.
A confluence of forces is driving this shift. Startups now have access to a broader mix of funding—from venture debt to private equity and family offices—reducing the urgency to list. Institutional investors, including superannuation funds, have ramped up allocations to private markets in search of higher returns and diversification. Since 2014, global private equity assets have grown ninefold, while public markets have merely doubled, according to Morningstar Indexes.
In Australia, private capital managers now oversee more than $62 billion across 850-plus businesses. Offshore investors are also fueling deal flow, especially in high-growth sectors like tech, biotech, fintech, and AI—areas where private capital’s flexibility gives it an edge. With deep-pocketed growth equity players in the mix, some companies may never go public at all.
Even when they do, today’s IPO candidates look different. They’re larger, more mature, and have slower growth. Revenue growth at IPO has dipped below 10% in recent years, a stark contrast to the 26% average seen between 2010 and 2013. While IPO activity is expected to rebound in late 2025 and into 2026, caution still lingers. In Australia, only one ASX float has topped AUD $100 million since 2022. The public markets are no longer the proving ground for early-stage innovation—they’re the exit ramp for companies that have already scaled.
The takeaway for investors? Some of the best growth stories are happening behind closed doors. Access to private markets is becoming, more than ever before, a complementary tool in investors’ quest for growth. Semiliquid funds are one of the vehicles to gain access.
Normalized valuations
After the tech boom of 2021, private market valuations—especially in venture capital and growth equity—have cooled significantly. Private market values for tech startups have dropped by 30%–85% since their 2021 highs.2 PitchBook, a Morningstar company that tracks public and private equity markets, including venture capital, private equity, and merger and acquisitions, reports that VC
valuations in Australia and New Zealand returned to prepandemic levels by 2024. Valuations have come back down to earth from the irrationally elevated levels of 2021 (with the notable exception of AI). Secondary markets are thriving—US VC secondaries even outpaced IPO exits for the first time.
This combination of more attractive entry valuations for direct company investments and a higher volume of secondary selling creates opportunities for flexible pools of capital.
Semiliquid funds emerge as a strategic tool to capture innovation at disciplined valuations
As private markets evolve, semiliquid funds are emerging as a strategic tool for capturing innovation at more disciplined valuations. Once confined to real estate and private credit, these semiliquid vehicles are now expanding into venture capital and growth equity—offering investors a fresh route into high-growth sectors without the rigid timelines of traditional private equity.
Unlike closed-end funds, semiliquid structures allow immediate investment, lower entry thresholds, and periodic liquidity. That flexibility is proving invaluable in a post-tech boom landscape, where innovation is being repriced and investors are seeking smarter, more agile ways to engage.
Semiliquid funds bypass capital calls and drawdown delays, giving investors direct exposure to private markets while maintaining the ability to pivot with economic tides. They’re also democratizing access, opening doors to smaller investors, family offices, and wealth managers once excluded from the private equity club.
Their strategic edge lies in long-term alignment. Without the pressure of a fixed fund life, managers can nurture portfolio companies through extended growth cycles, avoiding premature exits and deepening engagement with founders. Investors benefit from better timing—entering or exiting based on market conditions rather than fund mandates—and from capital efficiency, as gains from successful exits are reinvested into new ventures.
In a market recalibrating from the highs of 2021, semiliquid funds offer a modern mechanism for capturing innovation’s upside—where patience, adaptability, and access are the new currency of growth.
In today’s evolving private market landscape, semiliquid funds stand out as a timely and strategic solution and as the next chapter in private equity’s evolution. Their flexible structure, liquidity, and long-term alignment make them uniquely positioned to capture growth from innovation —unlocking opportunities once reserved for institutional giants. As access broadens and valuations stabilize, semiliquid funds could redefine how investors engage with the future of tech.
