Everything you wanted to know about US startups in 2024 in 100 charts.

Here are last year's highlights

𝗙𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗿𝗮𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 • US startups on Carta raised ~$85 billion this year, up from$75 billion in 2023. Progress. • That cash boost was raised on about 12% fewer rounds. Less progress.

𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 • Closed near record-highs for seed & Series A, slightly below that for B, and well off peaks for C and beyond.

𝗜𝗻𝗱𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘆 𝗦𝗲𝗴𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 • The year of AI has extended into the 3 years of AI. It dominated discussions, valuations, and attention.

𝗣𝗿𝗲-𝗦𝗲𝗲𝗱 & 𝗦𝗔𝗙𝗘𝘀 • The majority of rounds that raised less than $3 million were completed on SAFEs this past year. • 90$1 million have moved to SAFEs.

𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 & 𝗛𝗶𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 • Salaries were flat, equity was slightly down, but both stopped falling (which they had been for a year or so). Hiring, however, did not bounce back meaningfully.

• Startups internalized the lean message and are now smaller (in terms of total headcount) at every fundraising stage.

𝗠𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗼 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗻𝘀 • The Bay Area remained the home of startups, but many metros saw a bounce back from lows in 2023. Within AI, the Bay took in 55 cents of every dollar invested into the sector.

𝗙𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 • The decline from 2021 peak valuations had a lagged but predictable impact to fund performance metrics like IRR and TVPI. Conversations turned towards when is the appropriate moment for investors to push for DPI...opinions differed.

• The elongation of private company lifecycles (median time to IPO has now crossed a dozen years) has major implications for the fund lifecycle as well.

𝗘𝘅𝗶𝘁𝘀 • Very few IPOs, but M&A picked back up (15% higher than 2023). Remains to be seen if those acquisitions generated real wealth for founders and employees. As is usually the case, pundits are optimistic about exits in 2025.

• Shutdowns hit a new peak for Carta companies. This was expected after the funding glut of 2021 but was none the easier for those founders, employees, or families.

I love being able to pull data that covers founders, investors, and employees to give a 360 picture of startup life. Too many fascinating data points to list them all here.

Author

AiUTOMATING PEOPLE, ABN ASIA was founded by people with deep roots in academia, with work experience in the US, Holland, Hungary, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and Vietnam. ABN Asia is where academia and technology meet opportunity. With our cutting-edge solutions and competent software development services, we're helping businesses level up and take on the global scene. Our commitment: Faster. Better. More reliable. In most cases: Cheaper as well.

Feel free to reach out to us whenever you require IT services, digital consulting, off-the-shelf software solutions, or if you'd like to send us requests for proposals (RFPs). You can contact us at [email protected]. We're ready to assist you with all your technology needs.

© ABN ASIA