You can't compare VC behaviour when interest rates are low to when they're high, because when they're low they're handing out money to anyone with a pulse, and when they're high they're checking if pitches say March instead of May.
Because VCs need to get investors, meaning they're competing with other investment opportunities.
When interest rates were 0.5%, a high-risk investment with a 12% return looked pretty attractive. So lots of people were handing over money to VCs. As they had wheelbarrows full of other people's money they were required to spend they didn't look too closely at what they were spending it on.
Now you can get 5.5% risk-free from a bank account, that high-risk VC fund looks a lot less attractive. As VCs have much less cash they need to spend, they can be a lot more selective.
interest rate changes shift optimal balance of stocks vs bonds at hedge fund scale, altering prices which rebalances vc allocation in LP portfolios (targeting some fixed %) as well as impacts the velocity and price of IPOs which proceeds are reinvested into subsequent venture funds
