Female-founded companies in the U.S. raised $44.4 billion out of the $170.59 billion in venture capital allocated last year.
Such teams raised 26.1% of all venture capital allocated this year, a sizable jump from the 18.2% they picked up last year.
This follows the pattern that women founders still fare better with a male co-founder in the mix.
Kyle Stanford, lead VC analyst at PitchBook, told TechCrunch+ that it’s difficult to pinpoint a single reason why funding to women founders has dipped a bit, but he added that the decline in deal counts for women founders follows the trends of the broader market.
“That is not meant to make activity in female-founded companies look better, but the context of market difficulties is important.”Overall, less than 25% of all deals went to female-founded companies in 2023.
We’ve gone over how venture capital investment fared across the world over the past few days, but today we wanted to provide a more comprehensive look at the numbers.
The TechCrunch+ team has charted data from PitchBook on venture capital investment flows across the world, and in the United States, Europe, Asia and Latin America.
Global venture capital resultsThis chart doesn’t appear too dramatic at first glance.
However, Q4 2023 was particularly bad: Q4 2017 was the last time we saw venture investment in the last three months of the year fall so low.
That’s not good, especially as venture investment continued to drop in every quarter of 2023.
Well, now that we’re in recovery mode, there are new rules to play by when it comes to identifying, pitching and partnering with the right investor.
LPs are being more selective, and the bar for deals is higher now, writes Paul Hsu, founder and CEO of Decasonic, a venture and digital assets fund.
He shares 12 tips on how to find the right venture partner in this new environment.
“As organizations ramp up their shift toward AI-centric business models, it’s not just about staying competitive — it’s also about survival.”Get the TechCrunch+ Roundup newsletter in your inbox!
Building a viable pricing model for generative AI features could be challengingAnd finally, as generative AI features become more ubiquitous, companies are finding that monetizing these add-ons is hard.
Venture debt has its merits.
That’s why it’s interesting that startup finance company Arc Technologies is choosing now to take on the $30 billion venture debt industry with a venture debt marketplace for Silicon Valley.
There’s a larger pool of debt capital that’s now available to these companies because they’re stronger and more resilient.
That’s what Arc is solving with its Arc Capital Markets debt marketplace.
“We want to help founders and CFOs weather the ongoing storm in the venture capital funding route and ensure that they’re continuing to grow efficiently with minimal dilution.”
The following is a compilation of 12 “dos and don’ts” for how innovators should pitch and partner with a new class of technology venture investors who balance market realism with optimism in driving a vision with substance.
Early-stage venture capital requires a team effort to find product-market fit and accelerate revenue growth.
DON’T give upLike many activities in the startup world, success finds those who have grit, courage, persistence, durability, and adaptability.
Venture capital often finds nonconsensus and nonobvious deals, but the process may take hundreds of meetings before the first yes.
Almost every company is better serviced by not raising venture capital and instead relying on profitable growth and other sources of capital.
New fundsWe started the year with news of a couple new venture funds that will be writing checks into fintech startups.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Ruth at TechCrunch Disrupt 2022 and was impressed with her knowledge and insights around venture capital.
Back in October, I reported on this after speaking with Synapse, which operates a platform enabling banks and fintech companies to easily develop financial services, and Evolve.
— Mary AnnMeanwhile, Mary Ann looked back at the biggest fintech hits and misses of 2023.
Among the fintech companies were Braid, Daylight and ZestMoney.
Even though news of potential interest rate cuts has led to optimism that the IPO window might reopen and things might improve in Startup Land, it appears the global venture capital market has yet to level-out: Early data from PitchBook indicates global VC investment in startups continued to slide in the fourth quarter of 2023.
The Exchange explores startups, markets and money.
Read it every morning on TechCrunch+ or get The Exchange newsletter every Saturday.
While things are down sharply in the United States compared to the heady days of 2021, investment trends seem to have largely reached a new normal — U.S. startups raised $37.5 billion in Q4 2023, which wasn’t much less than the $37.6 billion they raised in Q2 2023 and $39.8 billion in Q4 2022.
In contrast, here’s what’s happening globally:We are still going down, folks!
Are megafunds squeezing out small VCs and distorting the seed market?
Hello, and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
This is our Friday show, and today, Mary Ann Azevedo and Alex Wilhelm took on the week’s biggest tech, startup and venture capital news.
Here’s what we got into:And that’s Equity for this week!
For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website.
Hopes that it would become easier for startups to raise capital in 2023 were left unmet as the year ended.
The Exchange explores startups, markets and money.
New data from business database PitchBook paints a modestly dim picture of venture capital investment activity in the fourth quarter of 2023.
Per PitchBook’s preliminary count, startups in the U.S. raised 2,879 rounds worth about $37.5 billion in the fourth quarter — the lowest quarterly deal value since Q3 2019, and the lowest deal count since Q4 2017.
Across stages, venture capital investment activity in the United States is flagging, and this extends past aggregate figures — for example, we saw less total capital invested in U.S. startups last year than in 2020.
More than 40 investors share their top predictions for 2024 Investors aren't sure about the fate of IPOs and AI next yearIf I had to characterize 2023, I’d say it was the year of the great venture divide.
To find out, TechCrunch+ surveyed more than 40 venture capital investors about how they are preparing for next year and what they expect.
Some investors think exits will return in full force in 2024, but others predicted the industry would not see meaningful liquidity until 2025.
Several investors expect AI investing to cool next year, and an almost equal number think the sector will continue to remain red hot, only in different ways.
Lisa Wu, partner, Norwest Venture Partners: As multi-stage investors, we meet founders wherever they are on their journeys.
