PM Insights 2025 August in Review

Institutional secondary market-driven data insights covering a universe of private venture-backed companies.

|| September 4, 2025

‍PM Insights offers a comprehensive look at private market activity, covering sector trends, company-level insights, and monthly performance metrics.

The August 2025 report highlights movements in ROI, volatility, volumes, and valuations, while tracking institutional involvement and comparing current secondary market prices to recent funding rounds.

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Key Takeaways

PM50 Growth: ROI delivered another month of strong growth, posting a +5.64% return.
Sector Return: The Data sector recorded the weakest performance two consecutive months, with -3.77% in August 2025 and -2.82% in July 2025.
Sector Volatility: The AI sector showed heightened volatility, surging to 165.87% in August, up from 83.67% in July 2025.
Bid-Ask Volume Trends: Average bid volume increased by 20.05% and ask volume rose by 15.59% compared to July 2025.
Top Performer: Anthropic led the gains with composite price at $150.09 per share on August 31, 2025.

ROI Private & Public

|| ROI from December 31, 2024 until August 31, 2025

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The PM50 Growth tracks the performance of the 50 most active private names observed in the secondary market. It is an equal-weighted index, rebalanced on a monthly basis.

This rebalancing of constituents over time gives way for more active names to participate in what we observe as "market performance," and in a more appropriate manner than static selections and weightings criteria.

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Private Market: Sector Level for August 2025

|| Sector-level analysis for August 2025‍

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MoM Return on Investment (ROI)

The graph below displays the MoM ROI, broken down by PM Insights’ actively tracked sectors, covering the period from July 31, 2025 to August 31, 2025.

Strongest gain: AI topped sector performance with a 11.78% gain, signaling strong momentum
Weakest return: Data posted the lowest performance at -3.77%
PM50 Growth: Achieved a 5.64% gain, maintaining consistent upward movement

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Volatility of ROI

The volatility of the ROI is calculated based on the ROI movements within a 90-day rolling window ending on that date. The graph below illustrates volatility of ROI across various sectors on August 31, 2025.

Highest volatility: AI sector at 165.87%, highlighting significant price swings and investor uncertainty
Lowest volatility: Entertainment sector at 7.65%, reflecting steady, stable performance
PM50 Growth: Recorded 75.23% volatility, showing moderate fluctuations compared with the AI sector

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Total Bid and Ask Volume Ratio in August

The stacked bar chart below highlights total ask and bid volumes, along with their ratios, across sectors for selected companies with notable activity during the time period between August 1, 2025 and August 31, 2025.

Highest bid ratio – Data sector led in buy-side activity, with bids making up 75% of its $68.50 billion total volume
Highest ask ratio – Manufacturing sector showed a strong sell-side bias, with asks accounting for 96% of $94.46 million volume
PM50 Growth – Displayed a moderate sell-side skew, with asks representing 53% of $4.01 billion volume

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Sectors

Headquarters

CEO

Monthly Statistics

|| Monthly statistics from January, 2021 until August 2025

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Monthly PM50 Growth ROI

The chart below shows PM50 Growth’s month-on-month ROI.

January 2021 – ROI reached a peak of +16.25%, showing strong early gains
June 2022 – ROI dropped to a low of -10.50% after a steady decline
Late 2022 – ROI remained largely negative, reflecting weak market conditions
May 2023 onward – ROI turned positive, with momentum gradually building
February 2025 – ROI climbed to a post-rebound high of +15.33%
August 2025 – ROI settled at +5.64%, holding in positive territory

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Monthly Institutional Level Activity

The chart below shows the monthly count of institutional-level ($1M+) bid, ask, or trade contributions.

April and December 2021 – Recorded the lowest levels at 185 contributions, highlighting reduced interest
April 2022 and March 2023 – Marked by notable spikes of 635 and 684 contributions
July 2024 – Saw the highest activity at 800 contributions, signaling strong institutional demand
August 2025 – Contributions declined to 254, down from 413 in July

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Monthly Total Bid and Ask Volume

The chart below presents total monthly bid and ask volumes tracked by PM Insights.

June 2021: Volume peaked at $21.15 billion, showing strong market engagement
‍December 2021: Fell to $2.12 billion, reflecting reduced activity
April 2022 and March 2023: Spiked to $12.79 billion and $19.20 billion, respectively‍
August 2025: Dropped to $4.52 billion, suggesting a market slowdown

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Monthly Bid and Ask Volume Ratio

The stacked bar chart below shows the total monthly bid and ask volumes alongside their relative ratios.

Largest bid-side activity: 56.09% of $4.80 billion in January 2021‍
Largest ask-side activity: 94.21% of $12.79 billion in April 2022

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Monthly Mean Volume per Indication Type

The chart below presents the monthly average volumes for asks, bids, and trades over the period from January 2021 to August 2025.

Asks:
- Highest average ask volume: $42.86M in June 2021
- Lowest average ask volume: $7.37M in June 2025
- August 2025 average ask volume: $14.18M, up +15.59% from July 2025

Bids:
- Highest average bid volume: $33.59 million in June 2021
- Lowest average bid volume: $6.12 million in February 2022
- August 2025 average bid volume: $17.26 million, up +20.05% from July 2025

Trades:
- Highest average trade volume: $15.64 million in June 2021
- Lowest average trade volume: $1.17 million in October 2024
- August 2025 average trade volume: $1.92M, down -59.81% from July 2025

All:
- Highest average volume: $33.08 million in June 2021
- Lowest average volume: $7.30 million in February 2024
- August 2025 average volume: $12.31 million, up +15.73% from July 2025

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Proportion of Change in Valuation

The chart below highlights the ratio of companies in PM Insights' universe current trading levels relative to recent round valuations.

Latest vs prior round: 88% of companies raised new funding at a higher valuation than their previous round
Latest round vs current secondary market activity: 47% of companies are currently trading at lower valuations than their latest round

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Change in Composite Price (MoM)

PM Insights highlights the top five and bottom five companies in terms of change in composite price between July 31, 2025 and August 31, 2025 with significant activities i.e. at least 3 institutional-level contributions—to identify those experiencing the most notable shifts in market sentiment.

Strongest gain: Anthropic's composite price rose by +76.39% from $85.09 to $150.09
Largest decline: Glean AI's composite price fell -2.03% from $54.68 to $53.57

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Change in Total Bid and Ask Volume (MoM)

PM Insights highlights the top five and bottom five companies with significant activities in terms of change in total bid and ask volume between July 31, 2025 and August 31, 2025.

Largest increase: Canva, up +627.28%, from $11 million to $80 million
Largest decrease: Databricks, down -75.45%, from $189.40 million to $46.50 million

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Most Active Names Performance Across All Sectors

Data as of August 31, 2025

90D Return △ - Trend of return on composite price

90D % △ - Change in composite price in terms of percentage

Implied Mkt Cap* - Implied market capitalization based on composite price

90D Implied Mkt △ - Change in implied market capitalization

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_{* Price (USD) estimated based on secondary market activity observed by PM Insights. Valuation is estimated based on said price and share count from state filings and/or news in the public domain. Note that share count in calculations may change as new filing documents are obtained.}

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