2023 In Review | What happened in Series A fundraising?
Seed-stage founders trying to raise a Series A already know - this year was challenging to say the least.
I'll dig into overall trends and then hopscotch through the industry bubbles represented in the graphic below.
All data from US companies on Carta. Only primary rounds included (in order to remove the effects of the many extension/bridge/insider rounds from the numbers). Left out any industry that did not have at least 10 primary rounds, so if you don't see your sector that's a likely reason.
All 2023 figures will end up rising a little since there's still some time left.
𝗢𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗶𝗻 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗦𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗔
808 primary Series A rounds in 2023, down about 50% from the 1,612 last year.
$11 billion invested in 2023, down from $25 billion last year.
19 industries with 10 or more primary Series A rounds, down from 26 industries last year.
Feels fair to say it was twice as difficult to raise an A this year as it was in 2022.
𝗜𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝗙𝗮𝘃𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗲 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀
AI - Appears in many industries, but I threw in a separate bubble anyway. High val, highest cash, definitely the "year of AI"
Renewable Energy (nice!) - First in cash raised and 5th in median valuation.
Proptech - very healthy cash and valuation, though only squeaked into the chart with 10 rounds.
Hardware
Cybersecurity
Biotech
𝗜𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗲 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀
Medical Devices came in 19th in both cash raised and valuation. Maybe some specific dynamics happening in that world that I don't quite understand.
Personal Products was low in both cash and valuation as well.
Food startups fell out of favor with VCs at this stage
DTC Retail
As we looked at yesterday, total primary seed rounds fell by about 38% from 2022. Total primary Series A volume was down 50%...and the early part of the market was the bright spot! Series B and beyond was even tougher.
Series A was also the stage which saw the greatest relative increase in shutdowns from a year ago (57 in 2022 --> 116 so far in 2023). Seems like this is a real make-or-break part of the startup journey.
More 2023 recaps to come throughout the holidays - follow along by hitting the 🔔 and signing up for our Carta Data Minute newsletter at the link in graphic!
#cartadata #SeriesA #startups #founders #fundraising
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