Venture Capital Market Trends and Challenges in 2024

Venture capital remains sluggish due to limited exits and stagnant investments, particularly outside of AI and Asia.

### Current Trends in Venture Capital: Slow Market and AI Investments
* 📉 The venture capital market remains sluggish, as evidenced by **low fundraising and exit activity**, with only **$37.5 billion invested in Q3**, a decrease from the previous quarter that had **larger deals**.
* 🌍 Investment excitement is primarily concentrated in **San Francisco and the U.S.**, while other regions, particularly outside of Asia, show **little significant activity**.
* 🤖 The recent deal involving AI highlights the **substantial capital requirements and costs** associated with AI technologies, attracting major investors like NVIDIA, Microsoft, and SoftBank, who anticipate **high returns**.
* 📊 While the data as of September 30 does not include this recent AI investment, it suggests a **potential improvement for 2024**, though one deal alone cannot **revitalize the entire market**.
* 💰 Valuations in Asia are notably higher, with deal sizes averaging around **$6.6 billion**, which is not typical for many companies in the venture space.
* 🚪 The lack of exits continues to hinder market activity, as limited distributions over the past few years have left many limited partners without the ability to **reinvest in new ventures**.
* 🔒 The stagnation in exits, including underwhelming IPO performances in Q1 and Q2, underscores the **challenges faced in the venture capital landscape** and suggests a **continued slow market** in the upcoming quarters.

The data to date does not include that open air. We can get to it, but summarised the Pitchbook data as of third quarter. Right. It does not include that opening ideal. But what we've seen is that venture still continues to be a really slow market. When you look at exits and you look at fundraising, you can really see why that is. There's nothing coming out of the market right now. It's in the U.S. or in Q3. There's about 37 and a half billion invested, which is lower than the quarter before, but that had a few large deals. But there's nothing really exciting happening outside of Asia in terms of investments being made right now. Where is the excitement happening in. From a geographical perspective cup. But it's happening in San Francisco. It's happening here in the U.S.. Right. If you look at open air, I think the deal that just closed shows two things.

One, it shows the incredible amount of capital that AI needs and the costs that these companies are incurring. It also shows the excitement around AI and the technology. Right. If you look at who is in that NVIDIA, Microsoft or Thrive Capital, SoftBank, you know, all of these investors are looking at this deal and this company as something that's going to be able to provide them huge returns moving down the road. Right. And that's how, you know, many of these investors have looked at, you know, up and down the venture lifecycle. And so that is definitely been the area of interest for investors, you know, in the U.S. and globally up to this point. So if we go on the basis that the data we're showing on the screen as of September 30th does not include the open. How does it change the trajectory for 2024 against prior years when we do take that round into account?

Yeah, right. I mean, I think we can look at it and say, and obviously he's going to make 2024 look much better. But if it's only one deal, it's not really capital available for the entire market. And I think that's something we've been saying with past quarters, rounds, a core weave or anthropic. These are very exciting, interesting, you know, scaling companies, but that's not what the rest of the markets seem right. Valuations in Asia are 40% higher than in other verticals. Deal size are much larger. Obviously, $6.6 billion is not a typical deal that many of these companies should expect anytime soon or ever. And it's only talk about the trajectory of the, you know, dollar value dollars going into the U.S. or the global benchmark. I think that really needs to be taken into account. What unplugs for the rest if you're not native, but you're adopting and you've

got a decent run rate in terms of revenue. Do we need more exits to be able to see the money come back in? Yeah, right. I mean, exits are still the kind of dam of the danger activity. And we look at distributions that are coming out of the market. We know that there has been very, very little for the past few years. Even the IPOs of Q1 and Q2 did not. We're not able to sustain the venture market. And so we take how large the assumed has grown for ABC in the past few years. Then just consider that all of that is stuck private and LPs have no way to use that cash for more investments or to recycle it back into venture. You can really start to see why there's such a slow market over the past few quarters and something we should expect for the coming quarters as well.

AI Firms Get More Than One-Third of VC Funds in 3Q

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Venture capital remains slow, with Q3 2023 investments in the U.

5 billion, lower than the previous quarter.

The excitement in investments is primarily happening in San Francisco and the U.

, with a focus on AI companies requiring significant capital.

The recent AI deal has attracted major investors like NVIDIA, Microsoft, and SoftBank, indicating a strong interest in the technology's potential for high returns.

A single large deal in 2024 may improve perceptions, but it doesn't provide capital for the entire market.

Valuations in Asia are 40% higher, with larger deal sizes, making them atypical for most companies.

The trajectory of dollar value going into the U.

and global benchmarks needs to be considered for a comprehensive market outlook.

Exits are crucial for bringing money back into the venture capital market, but there have been very few in recent years.

The lack of successful IPOs has contributed to a slow market, with a large portion of capital stuck in private investments.

This has left limited partners (LPs) without the means to recycle cash for new investments, prolonging the sluggishness in the venture market.