For venture investors that have collectively invested more than $8 billion in TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, the fate of the video app in the U.S., where officials are seeking changes to its ownership, could mean the difference between a huge portfolio win and a soul-crushing loss.
Early backers of ByteDance such as Susquehanna International Group and Sequoia Capital’s China affiliate have stakes worth tens of billions of dollars each, at least on paper. Others placed their bets much later, around 2021, buying up shares from existing investors at steep prices. Many of those shares are now underwater as private tech valuations, including that of ByteDance, have fallen in the past year. And in several previously unreported ByteDance share transactions, Sequoia Capital and other investors bought part or all of the stakes some smaller investors held even as uncertainties grew about when ByteDance could go public. (Scroll down to see information about 32 ByteDance shareholders and some of their estimated stakes.)