The fact that August saw the lowest number of exits so far this year – yet more than almost every month in 2024, bodes well for investors.
In absolute terms, August saw the lowest number of exits for corporate investors of any month in 2025 — some 45 liquidity events — yet still had more than any month in 2024 except for December.
So far in 2025, every month has seen a significant year-on-year increase in the number of exits for corporate investors compared to 2024, indicating that the exit drought that has cast a shadow over the past few years – and simultaneously led to substantial growth in the secondaries markets – is ending.
Four corporate-backed startups listed on public markets in August, just a slight dip from July's five. The largest of these was Bullish, the digital asset trading platform backed by Nomura, which went public on the New York Stock Exchange in a $1.1bn listing.
While mega exits can sometimes skew the figures, August was by far the biggest month in 2025 for sub-billion-dollar exits in terms of dollar value at $4.09bn. Since the start of 2023, it is second only to August last year.
However, together with the exit numbers for June and July – $1.47bn and $3.31bn, respectively – it marks the strongest summer for sub-billion exits since at least 2023.
Fernando Moncada Rivera
Fernando Moncada Rivera is a reporter at Global Corporate Venturing and also host of the CVC Unplugged podcast.
