This year is supposed to be a venture-capital wasteland, especially when compared to 2021’s cycle-topping excess. And yet.
New data from PitchBook providing a first look at Q3 2022 venture capital aggregates in the United States make it a bit hard to square reality with the leading narrative. Data indicate that U.S. venture capital was perfectly healthy in the third quarter, and 2022 has been a good year.
There’s one exception that we’ll talk about, but it’s time that we realize that the doom-gloom narrative may be more price control from investors than an indictment of the present-day startup valuation landscape. We made a similar point back in July when we looked at Q2 data.
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If the first quarter of 2022 was strong, the second was not as much of a disappointment as anticipated, and Q3 is holding up — then at some point, we have to admit that the largest market for venture capital activity is slowing but hardly threatening to enter a recession.
