Don't call it a comeback…no, seriously, don't jinx it.
But US venture capital is showing a few signs of life lately.
Total fundraising by startups on Carta has risen for three straight quarters. Bridge rounds are receding a little. And from the chart above, we can see the VCs are calling a bit more capital to (hopefully) invest into startups in the coming quarters.
(Also kinda interesting to see SPV capital calls taking up ~20% of total cap calls, maybe a sign of the return of late-stage?)
I'll also note that the chart above mostly reflects capital calls from smaller funds (eg. under $250M in AUM). So the emerging manager market may be improving at a different rate than the behemoth venture players.
Speaking of emerging managers — we are gearing up to release our first event Fund Benchmark Report, focused in particular on funds under $100M in AUM. This will be a great resource for managers trying to get a sense of how they stack up against other VC funds just like them.
You'll all receive a copy just for subscribing to this newsletter, but if you want to share with VC or LP friends — here's the waitlist link.
And if you have ideas about things to include in such a report, I await your emails!
Subscribe here if you're new to the Data Minute. Forwarding encouraged!
Peter Walker
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