Originally reported by Bloomberg on July 15th, 2024, a group of firms led by Goldman Sachs is investing $540 million into a vehicle created by venture capital firm NEA. The transaction enables NEA to provide liquidity to its partners and gives the investing firms exposure to multiple Prime Unicorn Index components, including Databricks, Plaid, Automation Anywhere, Collective Health, Instabase, and National Resilience. Databricks and Plaid are said to make up 38% and 10% of the vehicle, which contains eleven companies in total.
With six of the eleven companies and the two largest portions of the fund being components, NEA’s investment vehicle closely mirrors the composition of the Prime Unicorn Index. The substantial investment underscores the broad-based interest that major financial players like Goldman Sachs have in the growth potential of these high-profile startups and highlights the ongoing trend of traditional financial institutions seeking high returns and exposure to innovative technologies through venture capital. For investors with exposure to these private startups, where hedging is difficult, the Prime Unicorn Index serves as a valuable hedging tool.
Other investors included Industry Ventures, Pathway Capital Management, and Goanna Capital, with Jefferies Financial Group Inc. advising the transaction. The pricing of the deal is said to be about a 19% discount on NEA’s internal marks, which have Databricks at $46 billion and Plaid at $8 billion. These companies were last valued by the Prime Unicorn Index at about $27 billion and $4 billion, respectively.