New: the first impacts of SVB

The key insight this week

Everyone has been asking—what will the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (now a part of First Citizens Bank) mean for venture capital fundraising?

It's a little early to give specific answers to that question. But here's some informed speculation:

Carta has seen 108 funding rounds completed by companies using our cap table platform in March. That's less than half of the totals for both January and February this year, which themselves were already well under every month from 2022.

Now, a major caveat: Our data does exhibit some lag, meaning we will certainly see more rounds come in for Q1, especially for March, over the coming weeks. But even if March totals come in over 200, the picture is far from rosy—particularly in comparison with the March 2022 haul of 683 rounds.

It could be that venture activity has merely paused. April could see a rebound in deals as discussions that were underway before SVB's collapse resume their usual pace. Fingers crossed things just took a breather instead of a longer break.

Next week, we'll dig into the first set of valuations data for Q1 2023.

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Peter Walker

Carta Insights