4369 Startups Founded in 2018 Where Are They Now

4,369 startups founded in 2018 were seeking to raise venture capital. How far along the venture path have they gotten in 6 years?

Data looks only at US companies using Carta for cap table.

𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗲 𝟭: Carta did not have a free tier in 2018 (but we do now!) which probably accounts for the rather large percentage that made it to Priced Seed (ie if a company is paying Carta they were more confident in raising a seed round).

𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗲 𝟮: If a company had not raised any priced funding as of Jan 1, 2025 I put them in the closed bucket. As such, "closed" might be slightly overcounted.

𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗲 𝟯: "Live" in this graphic means the company is still in business and that stage was the most recent primary fundraise they have reported.

𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗲 𝟰: It's likely this cohort looks a bit different than prior years due to the VC fundraising bubble that hit in 2021 and the subsequent funding winter.

𝗕𝘆 𝗙𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗿𝗮𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗥𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗝𝗮𝗻 𝟭, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱

• 2,464 raised a seed round (56.4%)

• 1,588 have raised Series A (36.4%)

• 643 have raised Series B (14.8%)

• 194 have raised Series C (4.4%)

• 50 have raised Series D or beyond (1.1%)

𝗕𝘆 𝗢𝘂𝘁𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗮𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗝𝗮𝗻 𝟭, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱

• 15 are now public companies (0.34%)

• 239 have been acquired (5.5%)

• 57 are currently private unicorns (1.3%)

• 1,408 are still in business (32.2%)

• 2.707 have closed down (61.9%)

Big respect to the founders tilting at these venture windmills 🙏

#startups #founders #venturecapital #venturefunnel

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