News
March 19, 2025 SaaStr : 34% of All Startup Acquisitions Are By Other Start-Ups. A New Record.
First, it’s not new. 20% of deals even in 2018 were start-ups buying start-ups. And the dollar value has gone up, it’s doubled since 2018, although down from a 2023 peak. But a lot of these deals may be sort of “better than nothing” deals. Better than shutting down. Better than running out of money. And they often are better than that. (read more…)
March 11, 2025 TechCrunch : Y Combinator founders raising less money signals a ‘vibe shift’
“People used to climb Everest and they needed oxygen. Today, people climb it without oxygen. I want to summit Everest and use as little oxygen (VC) as possible.” (read more…)
CATEGORY: leadership, VC
February 24, 2025 Kyle Westway via Forbes : The New Venture Playbook: The Data Every Founder Needs To Know
About 20% of all venture capital rounds in 2024 were down rounds, double the historical average of 10%. This high percentage reflects the ongoing correction from 2021's elevated startup valuations. The time between funding rounds has also shifted significantly, with the median now extending beyond the traditional 18-24 month window. 2024 saw the highest absolute number of startup shutdowns in Carta's history. However, the failure rate remains consistent at around 90% for seed-stage companies. The bar for startup funding has risen significantly since 2021. Where once $1 million in ARR might have been sufficient to raise a Series A, founders now often need $3 million or higher growth rates to attract venture capital interest. "If you take venture capital and don't grow at venture capital paces, you could kill your company," he warns. "It is incumbent on the founder to understand their own business and choose the right type of capital for their growth trajectory." (read more…)
CATEGORY: capital, leadership, VC
February 18, 2025 Pitchbook : Venture debt hits all-time high as startups diverge from VC expectations
Later-stage startups are increasingly turning to venture debt as they struggle to keep up with growth expectations from VCs, and as a way to avoid raising equity financing at lower valuations. (read more…)
February 15, 2025 Pitchbook : Record highs for down rounds
In 2024, one-quarter of Series D+ venture financings in the US were completed at a lower valuation—and that's actually a lower percentage than the year prior. Down rounds have been spiking for the past few years, unsurprisingly. Those same Series D+ rounds were being completed at lower valuations at a 7% occurrence in 2021. Receiving equity interest from investors, even in a down round, is a step in the right direction away from shutting down. (read more…)
January 9, 2025 VC Lab : The State of Venture 2.0 in 2024
Our analysis of over 850 new fund managers in 2024 – representing approximately half of all VC firms launched worldwide – reveals a striking transformation in who gets to write the checks. Today’s emerging managers are younger (46% under 40), more diverse (27% women and non-binary), and increasingly likely to come from outside the industry (48.8% transitioning from other sectors). (read more…)
CATEGORY: VC
November 19, 2024 SaaStr : The Arguments For Not Raising at a Unicorn Valuation
There are significant downsides to raising at $1B. Especially today: #1. It’s Going to Be Very Hard to Make Those Unicorn Investors Money Today. #2. You’ll Start Attracting The Wrong People to Join You #3. Internal Inflation Will Accelerate. Everything Will Get More Expensive. (read more…)
CATEGORY: capital, resilience, risk, valuation
September 5, 2024 NBC News : nance Family offices are about to surpass hedge funds, with $5.4 trillion in assets by 2030
The number of single-family offices — the in-house investment and service firms of families typically worth $100 million or more — is expected to rise from 8,000 to 10,720 by 2030, according to a report from Deloitte Private. Their assets are expected to grow even faster, topping $5.4 trillion by 2030, up from $3.1 trillion today and more than doubling since 2019. (read more…)
CATEGORY: capital
June 20, 2024 SaaS Capital : What’s Your SaaS Company Worth?
Valuation Multiple = -2.43 + (0.19 * SCI) + (6.21 * ARR Growth Rate) + (4.38 * NRR Rate) (read more…)
May 22, 2024 Emergence Capital : Beyond Benchmarks 2024
ARR growth rates decreased significantly in 2023, and growth stage companies were impacted the most. Fundraising is meaningfully harder today than it has been in the past few years. 60% of companies leveraged GenAI in a 2023 product release. Public Markets no longer reward "Growth at All Costs"; however, Public Markets still value Growth at 2-3x Profitability (read more…)