2025 Year in Review: Smaller seed funds reap bumper harvest on exits

ETtech

The early bird, indeed, caught the worm this year.

A partial, 30-bagger exit from bike-taxi startup Rapido, a 10x outcome from MoEngage, and early liquidity from companies yet to file for IPOs: Multiple outsized venture returns in 2025 have come from smaller, early-stage investors that typically write the first cheques for businesses often in the cradle.

Their exits, often via partial secondary sales well before public listings of the companies they bankrolled, point to a maturing monetisation ecosystem that extends well beyond…