Venture capital firms are forming blank-check companies at a torrid pace.
They have the potential to buy startups they're already invested in, in order to take them public.
It's not illegal to buy companies where they have an interest, but it raises a potential conflict.
These days, more venture capital firms are either forming their own special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, or having internal conversations about doing so. A
SPAC
would let them launch a startup onto the public markets, even one from their own portfolios.
Peter Hébert, a founding partner at Lux Capital, whose SPAC started trading on the stock market last fall, said he's had at least 60 phone calls with venture capitalists who are asking if they should jump on the trend.