I pulled up 2023 deal volume via Pitchbook for all Seed and Series A rounds for US based startups, was curious to see how 2023 went from a pacing perspective vs prior years. 4,668 companies raised a Seed or Series A round in 2023. As expected it was down from the COVID / ZIRP era of 2020 to 2022. In the peak year of 2021 8,206 companies raised a similar round, so in 2023 it was down 40% from this peak year. The last time the number of companies that raised a similar number of 2023, was going back 7 years to 2016.

In terms of 2024, I predict that we will see LESS companies raise than 2023, this is for a few reasons. One main reason is that many of the 2023 announced rounds , were actual rounds that took place in 2022 but the announcement of the round was in 2023, so I think 2023 data was actually much lower than the 4,688 companies that I found via the Pitchbook query. Another reason is that there are some funds that will be raising money from LPs in 2024 and I predict that their pacing is going to be slower than 2023. I don’t anticipate VC firms investing at a fast pace than 2023, so even if VC firms have dry power aka callable capital from LPs, I don’t see them increasing their pacing at this particular stage. Overall, 2024 will still be a good year to raise capital and many VC firms will be active, but it might look more like 2013, in which 3,889 startups raised a Seed or Series A round of financing.