Global Venture Funding Dips Further In November 2022

Global venture funding reached $22 billion in November 2022, down 69% from $70 billion in November 2021. Month-over-month funding is also down by 19%.

This is the lowest funding month on record since February 2020, which saw $18.3 billion invested.

Based on an analysis of Crunchbase data, all funding stages were down this past month compared to a year ago. Seed funding dropped by a third, early stage halved and late stage is down by 80% compared to November 2021.

Newly minted unicorns also counted the lowest since March 2020.

Late-stage financings were at the lowest proportion (39%) in a month over the past three years.

“The closer you get to the IPO markets, the more that [funding] has pretty much ground to a halt,” said Emily Man, an investor at Redpoint, who spoke with Crunchbase News on the current funding environment.

“We’re not seeing the same volume of companies at the same quality,” said Man.

“Companies are either not choosing to raise, or companies are trying to raise, and then deciding not to and choosing alternative methods of funding,” she said.

And in some instances there is a price mismatch in the market between investor expectations and founders who are seeking valuations that were possible more than six, 12 or 18 months ago.

Many startups are “heads down on building the business and getting to a scale where they can successfully raise the next round,” said Man.

Fewer startups funded

Around a third fewer startups were funded compared to a year ago. Unique startups funded in November 2022 were below 2,000 compared to 3,500 in November 2021.

Average monthly fundings have come down in the second half of 2022. From the beginning of 2021 through H1 2022, average monthly fundings skyrocketed. Since third-quarter 2022, average funding per month is more in line with fiscal half years in 2019 and 2020.

Based on this new economic outlook, as one investor said, we will continue to have high volatility across all markets.

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Methodology

Funding rounds included in this report are seed, angel, venture, corporate-venture and private-equity rounds in venture-backed companies. This reflects data in Crunchbase as of  Dec. 7, 2022.

Please note that all funding values are given in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. Crunchbase 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 Crunchbase long after the event was announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historic spot price.

Illustration: Dom Guzman