“The 2022 venture capital market” is nearly a misnomer, as each quarter that passes seems to bring with it a new normal for startup investment. The pace of quarterly change in how venture investors are disbursing capital is making full-year numbers almost misleading.
The change inside of 2022, in other words, may at times mask just how much things have been evolving more recently; January and February feel like years ago in startup time, not merely a few quarters back.
Such is the case with the early-stage venture capital market in the United States. PitchBook data paints two perspectives on what’s going on today for younger startups. The first is that 2022 will be, when it closes in less than three months, the second-wealthiest early-stage startup investing period in history. That’s good and we presume welcome news for founders.
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At the same time, however, given successive quarterly declines, we are also looking at an early-stage market in retreat. So is it more important to look at Q3 2022 data for venture segments than year-to-date data for the same, if our goal is to grade, or at least understand, the current startup investing climate?