The State of U.S. Early-Stage Venture & Startups: 1Q22

Early-stage venture performance remained historically elevated in 1Q22, despite turbulence in later-stage venture and in the public market. 83% of startups on AngelList that had their share price change in 1Q22 saw that share price increase. That’s only a modest decline from 4Q21’s rate of 84% and 1Q21’s rate of 85%.

At the same time, 11.6% of the 6,848 startups (primarily at pre-seed and seed) that AngelList GPs had seasoned investments into raised a round or exited in 1Q22—representing the most active Q1 ever seen on AngelList.

Additionally, startup valuations increased at most stages in 1Q22.

Taken together, this data suggests early-stage VC has largely been spared from broader market turmoil thus far. This may be because early-stage startups are often several years away from exiting, and are therefore less likely to be impacted by public market volatility. We’ve previously found that venture capital returns and private market returns are uncorrelated.

This isn’t to say early-stage VC will maintain its current level of performance going forward, especially if investors become more risk-averse. However, for the time being, our data suggests these concerns have not materialized in a meaningful way for investments on AngelList.

The 1Q22 State of U.S. Early-Stage Venture & Startups report is made in collaboration with Silicon Valley Bank. Our combined datasets offer detailed insight into how capital flowed into and out of early-stage startups in 1Q22.

Additional key findings from this quarter’s report include:

• Most popular early-stage markets
• Funding to female founders
• Popular investment instruments
• Investment volume by round
• Startup payroll spend
• Median startup revenues
• Top emerging U.S. tech hubs