Chase Coleman's technology-focused investment manager Tiger Global is exploring options to cash in a part of its $40 billion portfolio of privately held companies through secondary market sales, according to a report by Bloomberg.

Chase Coleman's technology-focused investment manager Tiger Global is exploring options to cash in a part of its $40 billion portfolio of privately held companies through secondary market sales, according to a report by Bloomberg.

The report cites unnamed sources familiar with the matter as disclosing that the New York-based investment group has hired an adviser to assist with the divestment.

Most of the Tiger Global's assets are in start-up companies, but with fewer businesses going public over the past 18 months, secondary markets are increasingly providing an exit route for investors.

Talks are said to be at an early stage and potential buyers have said that any deal would probably be complicated by difficulties valuing the holdings, which include stakes in companies such as payments business Stripe, US software group Databricks and China’s ByteDance.

According to a report published by Raymond James, secondary deals have surged in recent years with $105 billion worth struck last year, an almost five-times increase on the value of transactions seen in the space a decade before.