Silicon Valley Dominates VC Because of Late Stage Investment

Why does Silicon Valley always dominate VC investment?

Answer: late-stage private companies

I looked at all investment into Carta cap tables in the US from Jan 1, 2021 thru May 31, 2023. For reference, Carta cap tables saw about 55% of all VC investment in 2022 so it's a decent proxy for the market as a whole.

Priced seed rounds are getting funded all across the country. 27% of seed cash goes to Silicon Valley startups, sure, but 9% goes to Boston. 4% to Seattle. 2% to Chicago. It's all over.

Series E and beyond? Basically half of all that money goes to Silicon Valley.

Lots of reasons behind this. Obviously the Valley is the most mature ecosystem, so companies have had time to grow into these late rounds there. It may also be due to the industry mix (SaaS, particularly B2B, is a large share of super late rounds - and that's the SV sweetspot).

Here's hoping those seed stage companies outside California change this graph up in the coming years!

More startup data of all shapes and sizes every week in our Data Minute newsletter, link in first comment below.

#cartadata #startups #earlystage #latestage #fundraising #siliconvalley