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Tech start-ups are getting tougher to value, says investor

The number of IPOs priced in the second half of 2015 is the smallest in three years

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Venture Investment Associates Managing Director Chris Douvos warns of a chill in the tech industry citing some tech companies starting to lay off employees. Photo: Noam Galai/TechCrunch/Getty Images

The lack of IPO activity in the tech sector is making it much more difficult to judge what high-valuation start-ups are actually worth, one investor said at a technology panel Monday.

Chris Douvos, managing director and general partner at Venture Investment Associates, graphically described the lack of IPO activity as an "exit sphincter" leaving LPs, investors that fund venture capital funds, out of money to reinvest. Douvos' comments came at a Monday panel at TechCrunch Disrupt in New York City.

Only 51 IPOs priced in the second half of 2015, the smallest batch since 2012, according to Proskauer's Capital Markets Group's 2016 IPO study. The first half of 2016 is on track to add even fewer.

"If I could wave a magic wand, I would invent a way to short, at times, private companies. That would bring back the equilibrium," he said.

Now, investors are faced with undesirable merger options at valuations that seem "divorced from fundamentals," said Union Square Ventures partner Andy Weissman.

"A lot of venture funds look amazing on paper," Douvos said. "As an industry, we're headed for this moment where the unrealised becomes the unrealisable. And that's the moment of nausea."

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