A) dividends require positive cash flow or positive profits, which might have not happened here. B) some preferred equity investors do just that. It’s a bit rarer but you can see a PIK 8% piece of pref with 4% current cash pay and a 4% accruing liability.

VC startups don’t generally pay dividends due to the cost of capital requiring reinvestment of profits (if any) to make the growth targets work.