Enterprise Weekly #420: Navigating Early-Stage Fundraising, and More
New data shows that global startups raised $76B in Q1, a steep decline from the $162B raised the same period last year. While there was a slowdown in funding across all stages, capital invested in Seed deals fell 44%, while late-stage funding dropped 54%. This data doesn’t specifically break out enterprise software funding, but, historically, we’ve seen this category show more resilience than other industries.
At our latest NY Enterprise Tech Meetup, we hosted a Seed VC panel with Work-Bench, Haystack, and Cowboy Ventures on some of today’s top trends. In addition to the hype around generative AI and security, they focused on how founders should navigate today’s funding environment:
Sustainable early-stage fundraising trajectories were thrown out of whack in 2021 when VCs were throwing too much money at early-stage companies, and founders too often skipped steps in their journeys while raising rounds at too high of valuations relative to the progress they had achieved (and could achieve with the capital of that round).
In today’s market, early-stage founders need to prioritize raising the right amount of capital that will enable them to balance dilution, while also ensuring their ability to reach timely milestones and position themselves well for future rounds at (hopefully) larger valuations. And Harry Stebbings agrees.
Check out our latest resources to navigate fundraising and tricky sales cycles:
[TEMPLATE] ICP Definition & GTM Planning: Download to build a narrative around a GTM vision and generate investor interest 🚀
[WEBINAR] Sales Masterclass on Qualifying & Forecasting: Sign up to learn a disciplined approach to qualifying, forecasting, and resourcing sales opportunities 💰
📚 Read more news:
Crunchbase: Layoffs At Big Tech Companies, Brutal As They Are, Have Walked Back Only 8% Of Pandemic Growth
TechCrunch: Amazon Wants To Boost 10 Generative AI Startups Around The Globe
NYTimes: For Lower-Income Students, Big Tech Internships Can Be Hard to Get
WSJ: Microsoft, Google, Amazon Look to Generative AI to Lift Cloud Businesses
WSJ: Google CEO Sundar Pichai Says Search to Include Chat AI
Company: FireHydrant
Role: Sr+ Product Marketing Manager
Technology: Site Reliability & Incident Management Platform
Funding: $32.5M from Work-Bench, Menlo Ventures, Harmony Partners, Salesforce Ventures
⭐ Company of the Week ⭐
Coast raises $2.1M led by Liquid2 Ventures, GTMfund and Others
Sales / Marketing • Seed • New York, NY
Founders: Spencer Levitt, Austin Pager
Narrato raises $1M led by AirTree Ventures
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Pre-Seed • San Francisco, CA
Native.ai raises $3.5M led by JumpStart Ventures and Ivy Ventures
Sales / Marketing • Seed • New York, NY
Anvil raises $5M led by Craft Ventures and Gradient Ventures
Collaboration / Productivity • Series A • San Francisco, CA
Customers.ai raises $5M led by ScOp Venture Capital
Sales / Marketing • Series A • Boston, MA
Trustle raises $6M led by Glasswing Ventures
Risk / Security • Seed • Walnut Creek, CA
Agnostiq raises $6.1M led by Differential Ventures
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Seed • Toronto, Canada
Cranium raises $7M led by KPMG and SYN Ventures
Risk / Security • Seed • Short Hills, NJ
Redefine.dev raises $8.5M led by Gillot Capital
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Seed • Tel Aviv, Israel
Spendflo raises $11M led by Prosus Ventures and Accel Partners
Future of Work • Series A • San Francisco, CA
Votiro raises $11.5M led by Harvest Lane Asset Management
Risk / Security • Series A • Austin, TX
Push Security raises $15M led by Google Ventures
Risk / Security • Series A • London, UK
Chroma raises $18M led by Quiet Capital
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Seed • San Francisco, CA
Strivacity raises $20M led by SignalFire
Risk / Security • Series A • Herndon, VA
Honeycomb raises $50M led by Headline
Infrastructure / Dev Tools • Series D • San Francisco, CA
Fourthline raises $54M led by Finch Capital
Risk / Security • Series B • Amsterdam, Netherlands
Cybereason raises $100M led by SoftBank
Risk / Security • Venture • Boston, MA
Quantexa raises $129M led by GIC
Data / AI / Machine Learning • Series E • London, UK