Vipe Financing: Venture (Capital) Investments in Public Equity

Venture investments in public equities (VIPEs) are a subset of private investments in public equities (PIPEs), which are sales of privately placed equity and equity-linked securities in companies with publicly listed shares. This article examines a large sample of VIPEs and attempts to answer the following questions: Has there been a significant increase in VIPEs over time? What are the typical characteristics of the firms receiving funding from VIPEs? Which securities and terms do venture capital firms (VCs) most frequently use? How do the public firms receiving funding from VCs perform after the issue? Because the cash flow rights obtained in PIPEs primarily pay off based on the issuer's postissue stock performance, the last question addresses how successful are the companies that VCs fund, and, to a large extent, how successful are the VCs themselves.