Skip to content
Subscriber Only
Opinion
Shuli Ren

Unicorns Backing Their Own VCs? Welcome to Peak Tech

Big checks have empowered startups to put off their IPOs. But now they’re buying growth.

Babies having babies.

Babies having babies.

Photographer: Dimas Ardian/Bloomberg

When unicorns start setting up their own venture-capital funds, you know the tech world is getting frothy.

In June, Singapore-based ride-hailing app GrabTaxi Holdings Pte launched Grab Ventures, shortly after its Indonesian rival Go-Jek Indonesia PT set up its own Go-Ventures. Onetime unicorn Meituan Dianping — the Chinese food-delivery firm that just completed its $4.2 billion IPO in Hong Kong — raised a $302 million fund in July for its DragonBall Capital fund.