Venture Capital

🫂The Number Of Mega-Deals Continue To Increase A “unicorn” is a privately held start-up that has reached a $1 billion valuation. ⤵️It used to be a term that described a very small and exclusive cohort of private companies. That has now changed.

⤵️Searches for the term “unicorn” have risen by 112% over the last 15 years.

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💬Daily set of news 📈A16z promotes Jennifer Li to help lead the new $1.25B Infrastructure fund 📈Ibotta’s IPO opens sharply higher, hinting at warming public-market interest in tech shares 📈Lacework, last valued at $8.3B, is in talks to sell for just $150M to $200M, say sources 📈Screen Skinz raises $1.5M seed to create custom screen protectors 🛡Powered by V3V Ventures

🗯Capital raised The amount of capital raised by these 100 funds was a decade low at $9.3B. To put this in perspective, the number reported in the first quarter of 2022 was $77.8B. If (and we expect this to be the case) we see more IPOs and successful exits in the coming quarters, capital should be freed up and available to reinvest, hopefully seeing this number creep back up. 🎞However, as discussed in previous quarterly updates, venture capital funds are facing much stiffer competition from other asset classes, so it will be interesting to see how much of the capital is actually reinvested into the venture space. 👕Source 🛡Powered by V3V Ventures

🔗Fundraising landscape Despite the uptick in exit value, the fundraising landscape remains challenging. Q1 saw the establishment of only 100 new venture capital funds, barely above the decade-low figure of 99 from Q1 of 2023. 🐢This number is also less than half the record high set in Q2 2022, suggesting ongoing difficulties in attracting capital into the VC space. 👕Source 🛡Powered by V3V Ventures

🤚Exit value & trends Q1 2024 On the back of the Reddit and Astera Labs IPOs, Q1 saw a 77% increase in exit value compared to Q4 2023, marking a positive shift. 🕔However, it’s important to note that the exit value of $18.4B in Q1 was still well below the $269.2B peak in Q2 2021. 👕Source 🛡Powered by V3V Ventures

🫂80% Of The Startups In The United States Fail The highest Startup failure rates are recorded in South Africa. The Major reasons are lack of funding, regulatory obstacles, infrastructure deficits, limited mentorship, frugality issues, and inadequate marketing and branding. 📌Canada and France, too, have a similar failure rate. 👕Source 🛡Powered by V3V Ventures

🤚San Francisco is the highest-ranked city for startups StartupBlink ranks every global startup city based on startup quality, quantity, and the overall business environment. San Francisco leads the rankings by a huge margin with a 546.427 score. 🔥Rounding out the top 5 best cities for startups are New York (223.407), London (127.426), Los Angeles (116.943), and Boston (103.337). 👕Source 🛡Powered by V3V Ventures

📟Cannabis startups raise an average of $1.86 million from seed-stage investors As more US states legalize recreational marijuana, investors are seeing opportunities in cannabis startups. 💬Online retailer Dutchie — valued at $3.75 billion — pulled in $350 million in Series D funding. 👕Source 🛡Powered by V3V Ventures

➡️AI startups attract over $24 billion in funding per year Funding for AI startups increased 327% between 2016 and 2020. ➡️Grammarly is currently the highest-valued AI startup at $13 billion. 👕Source 🛡Powered by V3V Ventures

🎤Agtech & New Food is the fastest-growing startup industry Agtech & New Food startups experienced a 128% increase in funding between 2021 and 2022, the largest increase among all industries. 📌Only 2% of global startups are Agtech & New Food. 👕Source 🛡Powered by V3V Ventures