The venture capital landscape is shifting—are you ready for what’s next?
Fenwick has partnered with Aumni, a J.P. Morgan company, to bring you the first joint edition of the Venture Beacon—a data-driven deep dive into the trends shaping today’s venture market. This collaboration merges Fenwick’s legal insight with Aumni’s cutting-edge analytics and data, providing founders and investors with unparalleled intelligence on funding dynamics, valuation trends, and deal terms.
This edition examines key venture capital trends across 2024, offering insights into fundraising, valuations, and investor sentiment. Looking ahead, we will release quarterly reports, ensuring ongoing, data-driven guidance for startups and investors navigating the evolving VC landscape.
Select Highlights from the 2024 Venture Beacon:
- The second half of 2024 saw improvements in capital raised and pre-money valuations, particularly at the top end of the market, suggesting potential positive momentum into 2025.
- Down rounds decreased in prevalence for late-stage companies, and extension rounds returned to levels seen in 2019 and 2020, indicating a relative improvement in market health.
- Despite the increase in up rounds and pari passu financings for later-stage companies, there was a notable increase in the prevalence of pay-to-play provisions in Series B and later rounds, continuing an upward trend since 2022, highlighting a strategic shift toward restructuring preference stacks and prompting investors to support later-stage companies in achieving stability and growth.
- Startup cohorts from 2021 and 2022 were less likely to secure follow-on capital within two years compared to those from 2019 and 2020, highlighting ongoing challenges in deal velocity and graduation rates.
- While there are encouraging signs of growth, extended fundraising timelines and lower stage-to-stage graduation rates suggest that stakeholders should remain vigilant to both opportunities and potential challenges in 2025.
Download the full report for a detailed look at these trends and stay tuned for our upcoming quarterly updates as we continue to track market shifts in real time.
Learn more about Aumni here.