The State of U.S. Early-Stage Venture: 1Q23
Early-stage venture performance remained sluggish in 1Q23.
Apr 12, 2023 — 2 min read
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- While positive activity (i.e., markups) on the AngelList platform reached its highest levels since 2Q22, investment activity declined to the lowest rate ever observed in our dataset.
- Average valuations declined at most funding stages, while median valuations actually increased for later-stage deals.
- A majority of investment activity on AngelList focused around early-stage deals, even though the observed positive activity came from later-stage deals.
- 8.1% of investment activity in 1Q23 involved startups in the AI / ML space, the largest share ever observed in our dataset for the sector.
- Read all our findings in our 1Q23 State of U.S. Early-Stage Venture report.
After a challenging close to 2022, early-stage venture performance didn’t show signs of rebounding in the first quarter of the new year. While “positive” activity (the share of startups that raised a round or exited at a valuation increase) showed modest gains, investment activity (startups that raised a round or exited) declined to the lowest levels ever observed in our dataset.
The positive activity that did occur appears to be focused around later-stage deals, as median valuations actually increased for Series A and Series B deals on AngelList. Average valuations declined across all funding stages, with the exception of pre-seed deals.
While positive activity came from later-stage deals, a vast majority of general investment activity appears to have come from early-stage startups in 1Q23. Our data implies that, while high-quality later-stage startups can still raise at valuation increases, VCs may be waiting out the market in hopes of another material repricing event.
The 1Q23 State of U.S. Early-Stage Venture report offers detailed insight into how capital flowed into startups in 1Q23. Key findings from this quarter’s report include:
- Markups
- Investment activity
- Average valuations
- Median valuations
- Most popular early-stage markets
- Funding to female founders
- Most popular investment instruments
- Investment volume by round
Programming note: For the past two years, Silicon Valley Bank has been a co-author of the quarterly State of Venture report. We are grateful for SVB’s contributions in helping us illustrate the outlook of the tech ecosystem to our readership. As we look to the future of these reports, we’re interested in working with new partners in the startup community that can share proprietary data to help inform and educate our audience of VCs, founders, and operators. If that’s you, please contact us by emailing mspeiser@angel.co.
Disclaimer
All data referenced in this material is current as of 3/31/23, unless otherwise mentioned. Charts and graphs provided within are for informational purposes solely and should not be relied upon when making any investment decision and does not constitute an offer of any kind. Past performance is not indicative of future results. The content speaks only as of the date indicated. We undertake no obligations to update them in the future. Any projections, estimates, forecasts, targets, prospects, and/or opinions expressed in these materials are subject to change without notice and may differ or be contrary to opinions expressed by others.
