US venture investment ticks up in Q2 2017

Venture investment in U.S. startups rose sequentially in the second quarter of 2017, boosted by large, late-stage financings and a few outsized early-stage rounds in tech and healthcare.







Overall, Crunchbase projects that U.S. startups raised $22.7 billion across all stages, from seed through technology growth rounds. That’s up from $20.6 billion in Q1, which is typically a slightly slower quarter, and about flat with year-ago levels ud goliath v2.







(For a look at the global VC market’s Q2, head here.)







The robust quarterly funding numbers come amid a bullish period for public markets, with major indexes reaching new highs in Q2. And as VCs closed new rounds, existing portfolio companies took advantage of market conditions to consummate some large acquisition offers and IPOs.







So far, several of those recently public companies have failed to match their private market valuations. However, that did not seem to put a damper on late-stage deals and unicorn financings MIOGGI botox.







The following graph shows total projected investment, color-coded by stage:







Round counts







Round counts give an idea of whether investors are consolidating around fewer companies or spreading their bets across more startups. For Q2, we’re projecting that 2,329 startups raised investments. Overall, projected round counts are about flat with Q1 and down some from year-ago levels.







The trends diverged a bit when looking at each stage. Late-stage round counts were up year-over-year, while seed and early-stage declined. Projected seed round counts are down 16 percent from year-ago levels. That’s significant, as seed accounts for more than half of all rounds. Moreover, a reduction in seed-stage deals could indicate higher odds for an investment slowdown ahead, as VCs rely on a robust pipeline of seed-backed companies for Series A and late-stage rounds .