It's official: The Grand VC-Backed IPO Procession of 2019 has begun. And it's begun with a bang. After pricing its offering late Thursday at $72 per share, Lyft saw its stock climb even higher on Friday, closing its first day of trading on the NASDAQ at $78.29 per share. 

Uber is expected to follow its biggest rival onto the public markets in short order, with several other companies that have attained billion-dollar valuations from VCs potentially following closely behind. And after seeing the red-hot reception for Lyft, they might try to follow even more closely than previously planned. 

That probably sounds just fine to the investors that have spent the past decade pumping billions of dollars into the current generation of unicorns. It might sound especially nice to one firm in particular. That's one of nine things you need to know from the past week: 1. The year of a16z begins It might be the most famous quote from the past decade of VC: "Software is eating the world." Ever since an essay by Marc Andreessen launched the idea into the public consciousness back in 2011, the investors at Andreessen Horowitz have gone about putting their money where Andreessen's mouth is, staking early-stage startups in nearly every possible subsector of the software realm.

And in 2019, it might just result in a truly stunning cascade of cash.

The firm was one of the largest VC backers of Lyft, with a pre-IPO stake of more than 15 million shares; at Friday's closing stock price of $78.29, those shares had a combined worth of around $1.2 billion. And it's not like a16z hopped on the Lyft train when the company was already an established unicorn. It first staked the business back in 2013, supporting a $60 million Series C that valued Lyft at $275 million—or about 1/100th of what reports are indicating is the company's fully diluted post-IPO valuation. 
  This could soon be a very profitable stretch of real estate for a16z. (Fischerrx6/iStock/Getty Images Plus)
Andreessen Horowitz was also an early backer of Pinterest, investing in a $27 million Series B at a $266 million valuation in 2011. The company's current valuation: $12.3 billion. The firm backed Slack when it was still a gaming startup called Tiny Speck developing a chat app on the side, joining a round that came with a $24 million valuation. In the nine years since, the company's on-paper valuation has increased nearly 300 times over. 

The list continues. Andreessen Horowitz was one of the very first investors in Robinhood, participating in a $3 million seed round in 2013; it also joined a $2 million seed investment in Stripe during 2011. Robinhood is now worth $5.6 billion, and Stripe's valuation has skyrocketed to a reported $22.5 billion.

It's unclear exactly what sort of stake a16z currently owns in that cohort of companies. It's unclear if they'll all actually go public before the year is out, perhaps even unlikely—Stripe, in particular, has said it might not conduct an IPO anytime soon.

But one thing is very clear indeed: a16z has shown a highly lucrative knack for identifying the next big thing.  2. Pre-IPO maneuvers Uber is staying busy ahead of an IPO that could occur as soon as next month: This week, it announced a $3.1 billion takeover of Careem, a ridehailing rival operating in the Middle East. Aforementioned fintech unicorn Robinhood conducted an acquisition of its own, snapping up MarketSnacks, the creator of a newsletter focused on Wall Street. For Palantir Technologies, the secretive Big Data business that is also reportedly considering a 2019 debut, the week's dealmaking was a bit different (and perhaps a bit more dangerous): The Peter Thiel-founded company reportedly won an $800 million contract to provide hardware and software for the US Army.  3. Consequences Last month, private equity firm founder John Childs was among those charged with soliciting prostitution as part of a long-running investigation in Florida. This week, his namesake JW Childs Associates firm announced a rebranding, taking the new name of Prospect Hill Growth Partners. And in the latest domino to fall in the recent college admissions bribery scandal, VC firm Lightspeed has parted ways with longtime investor Chris Schaepe after Schaepe revealed having hired William Rick Singer, the college admissions coach at the center of the scandal, and paid more than $600,000 for his services. Schaepe has denied any knowledge of the scheme.  4. Buyout fallout These days, it's hard enough for any brick-and-mortar retailer to escape from a mountain of debt. At Staples, it might be about to get a lot harder, as private equity owner Sycamore Partners is reportedly set to withdraw a $1 billion dividend from the office supplier less than two years after a $6.9 billion buyout. The week also brought news for another legacy brand with PE ties, as a report surfaced connecting TPG Capital to a possible purchase of Sports Illustrated. A deal would be the latest divestiture from the Time Inc. magazine empire after fellow media giant Meredith conducted a takeover last year.
  You could buy a lot of staples with $1 billion. (Kiddy0265/iStock/Getty Images Plus) 5. Nodding off Is it a ghost? Is it a unicorn? Why not both? Mattress startup Casper attained a $1.1 billion valuation this week with a new $100 million funding, a round that came not long after reports emerged that Casper plans to interview banks for a potential IPO beginning in April. If and when the business does go public, Leonardo DiCaprio and 50 Cent are among the investors poised to cash out.  6. New-nicorns Think I can get that to catch on? Casper wasn't the only business to reach unicorn status for the first time this week. Cloud software startup Vlocity pulled in $60 million at a reported valuation of an even $1 billion in a round co-led by Sutter Hill Ventures and Salesforce Ventures, while Australian payments startup Airwallex roped in a $100 million funding led by DST Global that valued the business at more than $1 billion.  7. Carlyle goes to Japan As more and more private equity firms set their sights on Asia, one of the industry's oldest names continued its longstanding investment activity in Japan. The Carlyle Group completed a tender offer this week to acquire a 49% stake in Orion Breweries, a seller of alcoholic beverages and soft drinks based on the island of Okinawa that's been in operation for more than 60 years. And on Friday, the firm announced an investment in Tokiwa, a Japanese cosmetics company that's been around for over seven decades.  8. Under the sea Oceans cover some 70% of the Earth (a percentage that's growing every day), but we know very little about them. To help solve the riddle of what happens in the water's darkest depths, a startup called Sofar Ocean Technologies brought in $7 million in funding this week to continue building a selection of underwater drones and other sensors, the latest sign of VC's growing interest in robotics.  9. Using your imagination In what might very well be the result of a game of VC mad libs, an entrepreneur named Caroline Spiegel—a college senior who just so happens to be the younger sister of Snapchat co-founder Evan Spiegel—has reportedly announced plans to launch a pornography startup. Called Quinn, the company won't offer videos or photos; instead, the image-free site will traffic in audio stories and the written word. It's the second such company to pop on the radar in recent weeks, following in the footsteps of audio erotica startup Dipsea, which raised $5.5 million late last month.