$4 trillion and 100,000 new companies.

These are the outcomes of a quarter-century of venture capital investments into startups.

Since the new millennium, $4.2 trillion has been invested into the global startup economy, producing 97,982 scaleups.

Of these, 7,030 have raised more than $100 million. We call them the Scalers. And 473 have surpassed the $1 billion mark in capital raised. We call them the Super Scalers.

These are just some of the findings of the latest report, produced by with for the held in Paris last month.

The innovation paradox: Nothing seems to move

While comparing the world鈥檚 Startup Atlas 2025 with the 2024 edition, one thing becomes clear: despite the 鈥渘ew economy鈥� continuing to generate industry disruptors at a steady pace 鈥� with nearly 8,000 new scaleups added since January 鈥� the overall picture of global innovation remains largely unchanged.

And for much of the world, that鈥檚 not good news. The balance of power has barely moved.

• North America continues to dominate, with 43% of the world鈥檚 scaleups, while attracting an even larger share of capital 鈥� now exactly half of all global scaleup investments.
• The APAC region maintains its second-place position, with about 27,000 scaleups (27% of the global volume) that have raised $1.3 trillion (31% of total capital).
• Europe remains stuck in third place, failing to gain relevance. The Old Continent is actually getting 鈥渙ld,鈥� accounting for 22% of scaleups but just 13% of global investments. In other words, Europe doesn鈥檛 have enough companies, and even worse, they鈥檙e under-capitalized.
• The Middle East, Latin America and Africa still struggle to meaningfully appear on the global map.

In a world where concentration attracts more concentration, reshaping the landscape takes time. But the iceberg rule applies: most activity happens below the surface 鈥� and reveals itself only much later. And today, there is far more dynamism beneath the surface than the top-line numbers suggest.

A decade in the world of innovation

But just zoom out, and everything changes.

A decade on planet Startup is a geological era.

The Innovation Ecosystem Life Cycle Curve hasn鈥檛 changed shape, but it has become dramatically more crowded, with far more weight shifted toward the later stages.

In 2015, fewer than 500 startup ecosystems sat on the global curve. The Star stage was an exclusive club of just three tech hubs (Silicon Valley, New York and Beijing), and only 13 ecosystems had reached the Scaleup stage. In short, the startup scene was relatively simple and still heavily concentrated in the U.S. and APAC.

Ten years later, the landscape is radically different. Nearly 900 ecosystems now appear on the curve. The Star stage includes 19 ecosystems (a 6x increase), while the Scaleup stage counts 45 (3.5x growth).

If we look into the crystal ball, it鈥檚 easy to foresee that by 2030 the life cycle curve may host 1,500-plus ecosystems, a massive expansion.

Of these, 40-50 are likely to reach the Star stage, and 90-100 the Scaleup stage. Practically speaking, this means one thing for innovation hunters (VCs and corporates): Navigating this landscape is about to become a serious headache.

The geography of the startup economy has also shifted.

On the right-hand side 鈥� the upper stages 鈥� the dominance pattern remains similar: once led by the U.S. (2) and China (1), the Star stage is now shared by the U.S. and APAC (8 each), with Israel, London and Paris as notable exceptions.

But moving left along the curve, Europe is gaining ground.

At the Scaleup stage, Europe now counts 12 ecosystems (up from just two a decade ago), surpassing APAC.

And in the startup and standup stages, Europe is now the region with the highest number of ecosystems overall.

In a nutshell: Europe seems to have built a broad, diversified base 鈥� but the question remains: Is this latent potential waiting to emerge, or simply the result of structural fragmentation?

A final note: Latin America, the Middle East and Africa are 鈥� with a few exceptions 鈥� almost absent from the Star (Israel) and Scaleup (Dubai, S茫o Paulo and Istanbul) stages. In the Startup stage, they represent only 10 out of 93 ecosystems. In the Standup stage, we finally see larger volumes (73 out of 721).

The question is: When will this immense innovation potential finally surface?

鈥斅燜or more insights, you can download the report: 鈥淭he Calm Before the AI Storm: Global Innovation Ecosystems: Who Leads, Who Lags, and Who Could Rise鈥� .

is chairman of and a professor at . He is a serial entrepreneur who has started three startups in his career, the last of which is , among the five Italian scaleups that have raised the largest amount of capital. He is recognized among the leading international experts in open innovation and has wide experience in setting up and managing open innovation projects 鈥� venture clients, venture builders, intrapreneurship, CVCs 鈥� with large multinational companies, as well as advising and training on this subject. Onetti has a column on () and several other tech blogs.

Related reading:

• Innovation Policies: The Australian Lesson Focusing Startup Investments On A Few Strategic Sectors
• AI Is Gorging On Venture Capital. This Is Why 鈥楶hysical AI鈥� Is Next
• The Dual-Use Tech Surge: Innovation鈥檚 Double-Edged Sword

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Within the vast space, voice AI startups have emerged as a standout, attracting the attention of investors globally, 小蓝视频色情网页版 data shows. Over the past 12-18 months, several voice AI companies have seen their valuations triple 鈥� a signal of accelerating market demand and perceived long-term worth.

One example of a voice AI company that has seen a massive valuation jump this year is , which allows creators, enterprises and others to use AI software to replicate voices in dozens of languages. The Brooklyn, New York-based startup went from achieving unicorn status with an $80 million Series B raise in January 2024 to being valued at about $3.3 billion one year later with a $180 million Series C co-led by and . Other backers include ,, and .

And on Sept. 8, ElevenLabs announced it will sell secondary shares to provide liquidity options for employees via that would double the company鈥檚 valuation to $6.6 billion. In a , ElevenLabs鈥� revealed that ElevenLabs had 鈥減assed $200M in ARR in 2.5 years.鈥�

Appetite for acquisitions

Voice also remains an attractive segment for ambitious acquirers. In July, , a startup that uses AI to generate human-sounding voices, for an undisclosed amount. Founded in 2022, PlayAI had raised $23.7 million, per 小蓝视频色情网页版 .

The PlayAI team鈥檚 鈥渨ork in creating natural voices, along with a platform for easy voice creation鈥� was a great match for Meta鈥檚 鈥渨ork and road map, across AI Characters, Meta AI, Wearables and audio content creation,鈥� according to an internal memo viewed by .

, managing partner and head of Europe at , believes that budding voice AI companies are ripe for acquisition because while companies may need speech-to-text, text-to-speech, intent recognition and conversational AI, building those capabilities in-house 鈥渃an take years.鈥�

鈥淎s CEOs realize that natural language and voice are essential to deliver the best product experience at the largest possible scale in the biggest markets, they鈥檒l often conclude that it’s much faster to acquire proven technology and teams, so one could expect acquisition opportunities to arise,鈥� Hulme told 小蓝视频色情网页版 News.

Controlled growth

The growing investment in voice AI isn’t surprising when you look at the rapid confluence of multiple fast-developing technologies 鈥� primarily LLMs and real-time voice recognition, according to Hulme.

鈥淪peech recognition is finally achieving human-level accuracy, LLMs are better at understanding context and intent, while microphones are literally in every device and platform we use,鈥� he said.

As a firm, GV has invested in several companies that fall under the voice AI category, including , , and .

鈥淥ne of the things that drew us to [these] companies 鈥� is the founders鈥� fundamental belief in the opportunity in natural language and voice as a user interface,鈥� Hulme added. 鈥淭hese companies are tackling different pieces of the conversational computing puzzle, but they share a vision of making humans鈥� interactions with machines truly natural and as low friction as possible.鈥�

Another factor that makes voice AI startups so attractive is that natural language can be considered to be humans鈥� main API for development, noted Hulme. And that includes understanding the world around us and communication.

鈥� users are sending millions of voice messages every day 鈥� that’s human behavior telling us how they want to communicate with technology in a frictionless way,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd LLMs have been trained on the internet, which is predominantly natural language, so it makes sense that natural language and voice are the most elegant way to interact with them.鈥�

, a partner with , said her firm has invested in models, middleware, applications, agents and even hardware as it relates to voice AI. Notably, it backed , an AI notepad that transcribes and summarizes meetings from your device.

鈥淎s a subset of our portfolio, many of those companies are experiencing tailwinds in usage and capability,鈥� she wrote via email. 鈥淪o it’s clear that after more than a decade of TTS/STT (text-to-speech/speech-to-text) being available, the current crop of audio-aware models have unlocked actual utility and mainstream usage of voice as an interface.鈥�

Customer conversations

Voice AI startups of all sizes continue to raise venture funding. Customer support in particular is a growing area.

an Austin, Texas-based 24/7 AI-powered phone system for restaurants, recently announced that it raised a $3.5 million seed round led by .

The company says it has driven 鈥渢ens of millions鈥� in order volume since its 2024 launch. Loman touts that its AI phone agent 鈥渁nswers every call,鈥� takes pickup and delivery orders, books reservations, fields guest questions and syncs directly with leading POS and reservation systems. The result, it claims, is that restaurants see higher revenue from recaptured calls and 鈥渟mart upsells,鈥� while also cutting labor costs.

In June, , a startup that builds enterprise AI agents for customer support, raised a $50 million Series B led by . Founded in 2023, the Boston-based company has raised a total of $78 million in funding, per 小蓝视频色情网页版 . In a recent , founder and CTO wrote that Maven鈥檚 voice AI agents for live calls can 鈥渦nderstand context and respond naturally in any situation.鈥�

鈥嬧�婬e added: 鈥淢aven Voice is also the first to bring voice-to-voice AI into real-world production for faster responses, more natural interactions, and tone that stays intact.鈥�

A 鈥榰niversal remote鈥� for the digital world

Then there are those companies that are working behind the scenes to help other AI companies grow their offerings. One example lies in , which is an applied AI startup that builds advanced speech-to-text and audio intelligence models. It aims to make it easy for developers to add voice features, such as transcription and voice recognition, to their apps. For example, voice AI apps such as and use AssemblyAI鈥檚 technology to power their features.

Founded in 2017, it has raised nearly $160 million to date, per 小蓝视频色情网页版 . Backers include ,, and , among others.

AssemblyAI鈥檚 technology has a variety of use cases, according to CEO and founder It’s used by contact centers and sales teams to transcribe and analyze customer calls, summarize conversations and detect key moments. As mentioned above, its tech powers features such as real-time subtitles, voice assistants and searchable transcripts for companies such as Granola, and . In the healthcare space, it automatically generates patient visit notes from recorded conversations. It also creates captions and transcripts for videos, podcasts and meetings.

鈥淚t’s very clear that there is a big market opportunity for what we’re doing,鈥� Fox told 小蓝视频色情网页版 News in an interview. 鈥淔or the first couple of years, the tech was bad, the market was small, and it took time before things started to really click and come together.

鈥淎nd there’s still a huge surface area of stuff that is unexplored and untapped, because the text still isn’t good enough for a lot of stuff,鈥� he added. 鈥淪o there’s still so much room to grow.鈥�

Usage to AssemblyAI鈥檚 API has grown over 250% year over year, according to Fox, who notes that the company has thousands of paying customers and over half a million developers on its platform currently.

Looking ahead, Fox believes another big use case for AssemblyAI鈥檚 technology is real-time voice agents that people can talk to over the phone and plug into hardware.

鈥淲e work closely with companies like , and there are so many in that space that are just taking off,鈥� he said

For GV鈥檚 Hulme, one of the most exciting trends he believes is underway in the growth of voice AI is that 鈥渨e鈥檙e returning to humanity鈥檚 most natural form of communication.鈥�

After decades of adapting ourselves to technology, 鈥渢echnology is finally adapting to us,鈥� he said.

鈥淰oice and natural language represent the ultimate accessibility hack, democratizing access to computational power for everyone who can think and communicate 鈥� It鈥檚 worth keeping an eye on because voice is becoming a type of universal remote for the digital world,鈥� Hulme told 小蓝视频色情网页版 News. 鈥淲hether it鈥檚 Big Tech companies or new startups, there are many players jockeying for advantages at the conversational layer.鈥�

Related reading:

• ElevenLabs Latest AI Unicorn After $80M Raise

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A founder from Berlin recently told me she was 鈥渞ethinking America鈥� and focusing on Europe in light of 鈥檚 start to his presidency. I鈥檝e heard variations of this sentiment since last November, and the perception is spreading that European founders are turning their backs on global expansion.

Some are. But if you look closer, a different story is emerging. Europe鈥檚 most ambitious founders are, in fact, more committed to growing internationally 鈥� in some sense, filling a vacuum left by our political leaders.

I believe now is a defining moment for European tech, and the companies that seize it and expand globally will be the ones who capture tomorrow鈥檚 biggest opportunities.

The European tech ecosystem has matured dramatically over the past decade, and it鈥檚 increasingly possible to build global champions from Europe. The best European companies are born global 鈥� a finding validated by research that my firm, , has conducted for the latest edition of 鈥�,鈥� our definitive guide to U.S. expansion.

Whether it鈥檚 a team of two or 200, companies are planning for international scale, and expanding to the U.S., earlier than ever before.

The challenge isn鈥檛 about choosing a specific expansion strategy. Our research has identified several distinct archetypes:

• Magnets that pivot quickly toward the U.S. market where most of their revenue will come from;
• Pendulums that balance between continents by maintaining multiple centers of gravity;
• Anchors that keep a European base but establish targeted American footholds;
• Telescopes that capture significant U.S. market share without extensive on-the-ground infrastructure; and
• Transplants that jump wholesale to the U.S. from day one.

All these paths can result in category leadership. The bigger issue is ambition. Mindset comes first. Everything else follows.

The costs of delayed global thinking

After years of working with European startups, I’ve observed that companies from countries with relatively large home markets 鈥� Germany, France, Spain and the U.K. 鈥� can fall into what I call the 鈥渕id-sized country trap.鈥� These markets are large enough to sustain initial growth, but create a comfort zone that can stifle global ambition.

This makes internationalization more difficult down the line, as neither product nor culture supports agile expansion into new markets. Startups can get locked into local optimizations, acquire technical debt and end up having to 鈥渞estart鈥� the company in each new geography. As a result, they become vulnerable to competitors who have built scalable products from the ground up and are able to move faster.

Cultural factors can reinforce the mid-sized country trap. Some European countries are inward-looking for historical reasons, but also because they鈥檝e always been large enough to encourage the localization of foreign products and services 鈥� like films.

In France, where I grew up, all the foreign films and TV shows I watched were dubbed, so I rarely heard English growing up. While social media is hastening the decline of this linguistic isolationism, I believe it鈥檚 still one of the reasons companies from bigger European countries have been slower to adopt a global mindset.

There鈥檚 a lot to learn from the experience of founders from smaller ecosystems such as the Nordics and Israel. Tellingly, children growing up in Sweden and Finland at the same time as I had much more exposure to English.

Their markets were too small for Hollywood to invest in dubbing films, and so viewers鈥� expectations adapted accordingly 鈥� for the better. In small countries, limited domestic demand becomes a forcing function for global thinking. When your home market can only take you so far, you naturally build a company with scale in mind from the beginning.

Learning from outlier successes

Over the years, I鈥檝e seen many successful startups turn small home markets into a competitive advantage. Founders like from and from always knew they had to run international companies to sustain growth.

Despite radically different sectors, business models and expansion strategies, both companies wanted to transcend national boundaries from the beginning.

Our research into breakthrough European companies reveals several elements common to their global success:

• They commit to the global opportunity early: The longer you wait, the more calcified your organization becomes around your domestic market. For example, the longer you stay in France, the more French speakers you hire, the more French is incorporated in your product … you get calcified.
• They build with English first: It鈥檚 often an advantage to establish English as the company language from day one, regardless of location. This seemingly small decision shapes everything from who you hire to how you design your product and documentation.
• They design for global scale: It鈥檚 worth investing early in systems and processes that work across markets, languages and regulations. This architectural decision pays enormous dividends as you grow. Based in the Netherlands, Adyen built a platform designed to handle the complexity of cross-border transactions in Europe from the start. By the time it approached the U.S., it had already solved far more complex problems than many of its American competitors.
• They can focus on sectors, not geographies: Sometimes, building deep expertise in a specific sector can trump step-by-step geographic expansion strategies. Israeli cybersecurity company targeted the most sophisticated cybersecurity customers globally, naturally leading it to the U.S. market and helping it achieve $100 million ARR in just 18 months.
• They nurture a global culture: It鈥檚 good to hire people with global mindsets and experience, as cultural alignment becomes more difficult the longer you wait. built international hubs across Amsterdam, Berlin, Yerevan, London and Copenhagen, and its Amsterdam office alone now represents over 100 nationalities.
• They understand market dynamics: Companies need to be clear-eyed about where their total addressable market, or TAM, lies, as well as strategic and specific partners and customers. For enterprise SaaS companies, the U.S. often represents more than 50% of global opportunity. For companies with strong network effects or significant European market share, a more balanced approach may make sense. established U.S. operations early to be close to platform partners like and , while keeping creative teams in Europe.
• They time their expansion thoughtfully: While early global thinking is crucial, the timing of market entry should align with the business model and archetype. A magnet company might pivot to the U.S. at Series A, while a pendulum company might wait until Series C. What matters is that your internal architecture 鈥� both technical and cultural 鈥� supports your eventual expansion. saw 75% of early customer interest from the U.S. despite being based in London 鈥� so it built its product with American customers in mind before CEO eventually moved it to New York.

At Index, we鈥檝e seen that great companies aren鈥檛 defined by where they begin, but by how far they go. The most successful ones don’t wait until they feel 鈥渞eady鈥� to go international. They make themselves ready: They are born global.

is a partner at . In 2022, he moved from London to New York to expand the firm鈥檚 U.S. presence and partner with globally minded founders, whether they start in Europe or North America. Mignot backs early-stage founders building transformative products in healthcare, AI and financial services.

Editor鈥檚 note: This article is based on a new book from Index entitled 鈥� which was released on July 1.

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Venture and growth investors in private companies scaled back their investment pace significantly in the latter half of 2022, signaling a slower funding climate as we begin 2023.

To be fair, 2021 was a tough act to follow. Fast-growing startups were showered with capital, and tech firms went public at high valuations. Acronyms like SPAC and NFT were golden tickets to cash. Every type of investor had a role to play and there was every reason to believe the lavish show would go on in 2022.

But last year鈥檚 funding numbers said otherwise. Global venture funding in 2022 reached $445 billion 鈥� marking a 35% decline year over year from the $681 billion invested in 2021 鈥� according to an analysis of 小蓝视频色情网页版 data. But despite the slower funding environment in 2022, investors spent $100 billion more last year than the $342 billion invested in 2020.听

Indications that 2021 might be an outlier amid global funding鈥檚 more measured rise over the years instead of a new, heady normal, developed fairly quickly in 2022. The stock market鈥檚 fall, mass tech layoffs and crypto鈥檚 collapse left many investors and startups struggling to match 2021鈥檚 successes. Suddenly $445 billion of global venture funding in a year doesn鈥檛 look so bad.

Table of Contents

• Quarterly down
• Seed funding
• Early-stage funding
• Late-stage funding
• Unicorn pace slows
• A reckoning
• Methodology
• Glossary of funding terms

Quarterly down

Much of the 2022 decline was weighted in the second half of the year. Funding in the fourth quarter was marginally below the third quarter, which had already declined significantly, particularly at late-stage financings.听

Fourth-quarter funding totaled $77 billion 鈥斅燿own 6% quarter over quarter and 59% year over year 鈥斅爉aking it the lowest since the first quarter of 2020, when $70 billion was invested.听

As each funding stage attracts distinct investors, and is impacted in different ways through the downturn, let鈥檚 review funding for each quarter by stage.听

Seed funding

Seed funding was the least impacted funding stage through last year鈥檚 downturn.听

The fourth quarter was the first quarter in 2022 when seed-stage funding fell in a year-over-year comparison. Seed funding totaled $7 billion in Q4, down 35% year over year. The third quarter in 2022 was flat year over year, but the first two quarters were higher than a year earlier.听

Early-stage funding

Early-stage funding totaled $31 billion in Q4, down by 54% year over year. The third quarter was also a much slower funding quarter, down 39% year over year. Prior to that, the first quarter was up and the second quarter down by less than 10% compared to a year earlier.

Series B fundings were down by a greater percentage than Series A fundings these past two quarters.听

Late-stage funding

The pullback in late-stage funding started in the second quarter of 2022 and continued through each consecutive quarter.听

Late-stage and technology growth funding was $40 billion, down 64% year over year for this past quarter, from $110 billion in Q4 2021, and flat quarter over quarter according to an analysis of 小蓝视频色情网页版 data.

Unicorn pace slows

As expected, unicorn creation also slowed in Q4, when just 22 new unicorn companies joined The 小蓝视频色情网页版 Unicorn Board. That鈥檚 below the lowest quarterly count since the first quarter of 2020 with 23 new unicorns.听

New unicorns in peak quarters in 2021 numbered over 150 companies joining per quarter.听

A reckoning

The venture industry faced a reckoning in 2022.听

In the pandemic-heavy days of 2021, startups growing the fastest were rewarded with abundant capital. A record number of technology startups went public well above their last private valuations and soared on listing. Momentum for special-purpose acquisition company IPOs peaked and . Thousands of buyers bought NFTs valued in the millions of dollars. And Bitcoin peaked at $65,000 in November 2021.听

Capital to private companies came from an array of investors; venture firms with bigger pockets, sovereign wealth funds, private equity and hedge funds committed more to private tech, and corporate investors leaned into innovation in part by funding innovative tech companies.听

As we entered 2022, the stock market crashed and spiraling public valuations put pressure on private company values. As capital became more expensive, conserving cash and demonstrating unit economics was advised by investors across the spectrum over the months that followed.听

The market for NFTs slid, crypto dropped 鈥� and has not emerged as a technology with a strong use case, outside of a store of value.听

The 鈥淕reat Resignation鈥� theme of 2021 turned on a dime in 2022 as broad layoffs hit across large and small public and private tech companies.

And the myth of the cleverest investor in the room was punctured with the collapse of eviscerating $38 billion in value.听

Even artificial intelligence seemed to fall short of its potential with the closure of , a self-driving technology company that was unable to raise further funding despite its backing from聽 and . However, one bright spot in 2022 was the release of projects DALL-E for text to image creation and for conversational AI, an indication of productivity gains to be had from developments in AI.听

The scaling back of late-stage funding will impact startups in 2023 as they prepare to raise funding at Series B and later. Round sizes have already come down, but investors will also be more cautious as a slew of startups 鈥攈aving held back 鈥� get ready to raise.听

Methodology

The data contained in this report comes directly from 小蓝视频色情网页版, and is based on reported data. Data reported is as of Jan. 4, 2023.

Note that data lags are most pronounced at the earliest stages of venture activity, with seed funding amounts increasing significantly after the end of a quarter/year.

Please note that all funding values are given in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. 小蓝视频色情网页版 converts foreign currencies to U.S. dollars at the prevailing spot rate from the date funding rounds, acquisitions, IPOs and other financial events are reported. Even if those events were added to 小蓝视频色情网页版 long after the event was announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historic spot price.

Glossary of funding terms

Seed and angel consists of seed, pre-seed and angel rounds. 小蓝视频色情网页版 also includes venture rounds of unknown series, equity crowdfunding and convertible notes at $3 million (USD or as-converted USD equivalent) or less.

Early-stage consists of Series A and Series B rounds, as well as other round types. 小蓝视频色情网页版 includes venture rounds of unknown series, corporate venture and other rounds above $3 million, and those less than or equal to $15 million.

Late-stage consists of Series C, Series D, Series E and later-lettered venture rounds following the 鈥淪eries [Letter]鈥� naming convention. Also included are venture rounds of unknown series, corporate venture and other rounds above $15 million.

Technology growth is a private-equity round raised by a company that has previously raised a 鈥渧enture鈥� round. (So basically, any round from the previously defined stages.)

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This latest fund was Quona鈥檚 third, and it far exceeded the firm鈥檚 initial target of $250 million. Quona started to raise the fund a year ago, taking an extra quarter to close the deal. Its last Fund 2 was announced in 2020 at $203 million.听

We spoke with , a co-founder and general partner at the firm, who confirmed that 75% of Quona鈥檚 existing LP base backed the new fund alongside new investors. Engel credited Quona鈥檚 success to both fund performance and the firm鈥檚 thesis to 鈥渞adically improve access and quality of financial services to the unbanked.鈥�

The firm operates in emerging markets across Latin America, India, Southeast Asia, Africa and MENA. Brazil and India are anchor countries with Mexico, Indonesia and South Africa secondary markets. These five countries represent three-quarters of Quona鈥檚 investment capital with people on the ground.听聽

鈥淭hese countries have been really overlooked and ignored and underinvested in for many, many decades,鈥� Engel said.

‘A thriving ecosystem’

Quona is always looking at newer market opportunities and seeks out markets with three crucial factors: an enabling regulatory environment; emerging low- and middle-income class; and mobile penetration and internet access to serve these markets.听

The firm has been in the top quartile performance for venture funds since its inception, a fact that demonstrates聽 鈥渋mpact and profits don’t necessarily need to be mutually exclusive,鈥� Engel said.

Engel co-founded the firm with and in 2015, spinning out from Massachusetts-based global nonprofit .

Quona invests an initial check size of $1 million to $5 million at Series A. As the firm has gained experience and conviction, it has started investing earlier at seed. It reserves funds for follow-on investments to support portfolio companies. The firm has an additional five partners with a total of 14 investment professionals.

鈥淓veryone at Quona is trying to build something bigger than themselves, and this notion that our legacy really is to leave a thriving ecosystem,鈥� said Engel.听

Quona鈥檚 portfolio companies have raised $4 billion in capital in total. Investments include: Brazil-based , which allows consumers to get loans against property; digital banking platforms from Mexico and from Jakarta; and South Africa-based mobile point-of-sale company . All of these companies target underserved markets.

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Venture and growth investors in private companies scaled back their investment pace significantly as the slump in the public markets stretched into the third quarter.

Venture funding for the third quarter of 2022 totaled $81 billion, down by $90 billion (53%) year over year and by $40 billion (33%) quarter over quarter, according to a 小蓝视频色情网页版 News analysis. While funding for the most recent quarter will increase a little in the coming months as stealth fundings are announced, this is a huge drop in funding compared to prior quarters.听

This past quarter is the lowest quarterly funding amount since the first quarter of 2020, with $70.6 billion in venture funding.听

Table of contents

• A decacorn exit
• Late stage declines further
• Early-stage funding
• Seed-stage runup
• In summary
• Methodology
• Glossary of funding terms

A decacorn exit

In defiance of recent funding trends, the largest acquisition in venture history鈥攕hould it pass regulatory scrutiny鈥攊s acquisition of for $20 billion, a price that is double its last private valuation of $10 billion in June 2021.听

We find a further 67 companies valued above $10 billion or more on The 小蓝视频色情网页版 Unicorn Board, with Shanghai-based the most highly valued private company. More than 1,400 current unicorn startups鈥攑rivate companies valued at $1 billion or more鈥攊n the world are gathered on the .听

A total of 37 companies joined the Unicorn Board this past quarter, the lowest count in the past two years. This is down from 103 companies that were added to the board in the second quarter of 2022 and contrasts with 165 companies that were newly minted in the third quarter of 2021.听

Late stage declines further

Global late-stage funding, which slowed significantly in the second quarter, continued its downward trend in the third quarter of 2022.听

A total of $40 billion was invested in late-stage venture and private equity to venture-backed companies in the third quarter, down 40% quarter over quarter and 63% year over year.听

Late-stage venture and growth funding showed the largest increase in 2021 and now has dipped the most in 2022 with the most recent past quarter on par with first-quarter 2020.听

Early-stage funding

Global early-stage funding totaled $34 billion in the third quarter of 2022, a decline of 25% quarter over quarter and 39% year over year.听

Series A funding was the least impacted at early stage, down 23% year over year, whilet Series B fundings dropped 54% for the same time frame.听

Seed-stage runup

Seed-stage startups are the least impacted in the new funding environment of 2022. But seed-stage funding is still down quarter over quarter and close to flat year over year.听

On the other hand, more dollars went into seed-stage fundings in the first half of 2022 compared to half-year time frames in 2021.听

In summary

Funding has slumped in the third quarter of 2022. It is not entirely clear if we have hit rock bottom鈥攁s venture investors paused over the summer months鈥攐r whether funding will continue to ebb lower in the fourth quarter.听

There is pressure in the venture funding markets with record funds raised by venture capital firms in 2021 and into 2022. Many believe that this buildup of dry powder will create new investment pressures as we move into 2023.听

Methodology

The data contained in this report comes directly from 小蓝视频色情网页版, and is based on reported data. Data reported is as of Oct. 3, 2022.

Note that data lags are most pronounced at the earliest stages of venture activity, with seed funding amounts increasing significantly after the end of a quarter/year.

Please note that all funding values are given in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. 小蓝视频色情网页版 converts foreign currencies to U.S. dollars at the prevailing spot rate from the date funding rounds, acquisitions, IPOs and other financial events are reported. Even if those events were added to 小蓝视频色情网页版 long after the event was announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historic spot price.

Glossary of funding terms

Seed and angel consists of seed, pre-seed and angel rounds. 小蓝视频色情网页版 also includes venture rounds of unknown series, equity crowdfunding and convertible notes at $3 million (USD or as-converted USD equivalent) or less.

Early stage consists of Series A and Series B rounds, as well as other round types. 小蓝视频色情网页版 includes venture rounds of unknown series, corporate venture and other rounds above $3 million, and those less than or equal to $15 million.

Late stage consists of Series C, Series D, Series E and later-lettered venture rounds following the 鈥淪eries [Letter]鈥� naming convention. Also included are venture rounds of unknown series, corporate venture and other rounds above $15 million.

Technology growth is a private-equity round raised by a company that has previously raised a 鈥渧enture鈥� round. (So basically, any round from the previously defined stages.)

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