Fidelity, the lead investor in Reddit’s most-recent funding round, has slashed the estimated worth of its equity stake in the popular social media platform by 41%, the latest high-profile write-down amid a weakening worldwide economy on public markets.

Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund’s stake in Reddit was valued at $16.6 million as of April 28, according to the fund’s monthly disclosure released over the weekend. That’s down 41.1% over the $28.2 million the firm spent to acquire the Reddit shares in the Series F funding, according to disclosures the firm has made in its annual and semi-annual reports.

Reddit was valued at $10 billion when the social media giant attracted funds in August 2021. Fidelity — which has marked down its stakes in many startups including Stripe and Reddit in recent quarters — also slashed the value of its Twitter stake, it disclosed in the filing, valuing Elon Musk’s firm at about $15 billion.

Reddit declined to comment.

This devaluation, part of a broader trend that has hit a variety of growth stage startups across the globe in the past year, raises uncertainties about whether Reddit will maintain its initial intent to reportedly go public at a valuation around $15 billion.

Reddit, which has raised over $1 billion to date, counts Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz among its backers.

The current wave of valuation cutbacks sheds new light on the impact of deteriorating worldwide economic conditions on fledgling startups. Despite the diminished funding activities for startups globally over the past year, valuations of numerous larger startups have stayed constant.

Fidelity cuts Reddit valuation by 41% by Manish Singh originally published on TechCrunch

https://techcrunch.com/2023/06/01/fidelity-reddit-valuation/