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.