Startup valuations drop for late-stage companies, but remain higher than before pandemic

Signs abound that the valuations for venture capital-backed tech companies are dropping, from sagging private stock prices on secondary exchanges to plunging share prices of comparable companies on Wall Street. But a pair of reports last week also showed that the valuation slump appears to be limited to later-stage companies, which in better times likely would have gone public by now or would be preparing to do so. "It's a tale of two worlds," said Ashraf Hebela, head of startup banking at Silicon…