The VC Market Feels the Burn of the Downturn

With quarterly lows in dealmaking and fundraising, the venture capital market is proving not to be immune to the shocks of a declining public market.

Still, while venture capital deal activity buckled under the weight of the wider economic downturn in the third quarter, deal count remained high on a historical basis, and U.S. VC fundraising set a new annual record at the end of the quarter, according to preliminary data from the PitchBook-NVCA venture monitor. The full report is set to publish next week. READ MORE

Venture capital deals are slowing due to economic pressures, report says

Startups are making fewer deals, “exits” are down and a recent surge in fund raising by venture firms has slowed drastically, says a new report from PitchBook.

“Deal activity across all stages is showing more signs of distress, recording the third consecutive decline in completed deals,” PitchBook, which tracks the venture capital industry, notes in new data released today. READ MORE

Venture Capital Firms Sitting on Billions in Dry Powder: Will This Lead to a Wave of Investment?

A buzz is starting to build that we could see a return to blockbuster venture capital investment in 2023. Although firms have been wary of investment over the past few months, that is predicted to change. If venture capital firms begin to deploy the massive amount of dry powder they are currently sitting on, we could see investment next year along the lines of what we experienced in 2021 or even greater. READ MORE

What happened when this entrepreneur put her startup on hold to help Ukraine, and told VCs to donate

When Russia invaded her home country of Ukraine, UK-based tech entrepreneur Irra Ariella Khi, cofounder of Zamna — set up a fundraising page to directly support people inside Ukraine. Khi’s father (aged 70) and godmother (aged 82) are both in Ukraine, as are her stepsister and her children. Khi then temporarily stepped back from her day job at Zamna (which runs a blockchain system to securely share and verify passenger identities for airlines and travel authorities).

The next few weeks were a blur. READ MORE

4 Important Values To Instill In Your Early-Stage Startup

While it might seem that thinking about culture is a luxury in the early stages of a project, it is something you cannot afford to postpone. Establishing a productive startup culture from day one is essential because when your venture starts growing, the values you’ve installed will quickly spread to your new team members, and once attitudes and behaviors take root in your growing team it becomes harder and harder to influence them. READ MORE

How to Find the Right VC to Fund Your Business

While VC funding often represents the promised land for founders, anyone who's been in the ring knows that it can make or break your business. Raising money is important, but who you raise it from is what matters the most. A well-aligned VC partner can catapult your company into the major leagues, while a bad match can accelerate its unfortunate end. How do you identify and attract VCs with the right industry fit, network and core expertise? READ MORE

Is Silicon Valley really losing its crown?

Where is the heart of the technology industry?

The simple answer is “Silicon Valley,” a term that now generally means the San Francisco-San Jose-Oakland area of California. There are other options: The two largest public cloud providers, Microsoft and Amazon, are based in the state of Washington. Europe’s tech scene has been busy in recent years, meaning that it can’t be ignored in any such conversation. And the combined tech industries of China and India form a bloc that carries material heft. READ MORE

The New Rules Of Early Stage Venture Capital Valuation And Potential Responses

In our current economic environment, you would have to be hiding in a cave not to see, hear and feel valuations sliding downwards across the eco-system. It started in January 2022 when large-cap, mid-cap and then smaller-cap public companies started to fall in price. Past a certain point, we began to see private equity and venture capital investors applying these lessons to late stage private companies. In the time since February, we have seen the slide come all the way through the business food chain until it reached the startup. READ MORE