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SpaceX, OpenAI, ByteDance (owners of TikTok), and Stripe have one thing in common: They are all private companies valued in the hundreds of billions of dollars. Historically, companies of this scale would have gone public much earlier, but the timeline to IPO has shifted materially.
Over the past two decades, the average age of a company at IPO has nearly doubled—from 8 years in 2004 to roughly 14 years today.1 As a result, companies are spending more time in private markets, with a greater share of value creation occurring before they ever reach public investors.
Companies are IPOing Later With More Value Accruing While Private
Why Does This Matter to Investors?
More economic value is now being created while companies remain private, leaving less upside available once they eventually go public. For investors, this shift increases the importance of accessing private markets to fully participate in long-term value creation.
A staggering 87% of all companies with revenues over $100m are privately owned,2 meaning a substantial portion of the real economy—and many of its most important growth themes, including AI, infrastructure, and the energy transition—is increasingly financed outside public markets.
The Bottom Line
Investors looking for a simple way to access private market value creation might consider the Tema Alternative Asset Managers (AAUM) ETF. AAUM provides a single-trade solution for accessing private-market value creation that is:
- Liquid – Gain exposure through publicly traded alternative asset managers, avoiding direct investment in illiquid private assets. See our recent article, "Listed Alternatives: A Liquid Way to Access Private Markets", for more on this.
- Diversified – Broad exposure across managers, asset classes (including capital structure), and investment periods.
- Cost-efficient – Participate in private market growth without direct exposure to traditional private-market fee structures, which often include layered management fees and performance incentives that can be less transparent.
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