TL;DR: Here’s all we learned about the first quarter inside of a single piece. No, it’s not a slideshow.
As April races to a close, it’s hard to believe that the end of the first quarter is nearly a month behind us. But as earnings season beckons, we need to cap our first quarter venture coverage so that we can move on to more pressing matters.
Today, I have collated all the pieces Crunchbase News has published over the past few weeks concerning Q1 VC. Since the report came out in bits and pieces, it is likely you missed one.
For the sake of brevity, each piece is cut to a single paragraph and chart. Click through for the rest. (I almost put every word into this as a sort of omnibus, but it would have been more messy than useful.)
Q1 Global VC
Key paragraph:
On a year-over-year basis, Q1 2017 feels more like a return to the “new normal.” When comparing Q1 2017 to the same period the year before, little has changed, though some metrics are slightly less favorable than in Q1 2016.
Key chart:
Q1 US VC
Key paragraph:
Overall, according to Crunchbase projections, U.S. companies raised $21 billion in seed, venture, and technology growth-stage financing in Q1 2017, up from $18 billion in Q4 2016. Funding looks to be up sequentially for early stage and later investments, and the total number of funding rounds increased at all stages.
Key chart:
Female Founders
Key paragraph:
From 2009 to 2012, the percent of venture-funded companies with women founders increased by nearly 8 percent; however, the percentage of women-founded venture-backed companies has plateaued at approximately 17 percent since 2012. And as we look at Q1 2017 data, that percent doesn’t appear to have changed.
Key chart:
VR Investment
Key paragraph:
According to Crunchbase data, a total of 26 companies with AR or VR-focused businesses raised a disclosed funding round in the first quarter of this year. Together, the firms raised just over $200 million in Q1 2017. That result compares to 29 companies in Q1 2016 raising just over $1 billion. Q1 2017 also marks the lowest quarterly number of financings and investment total in over a year.
Key chart:
Open Source Investment
Key paragraph:
Fundraising activity in open source software companies was on a steady nine-year bull run through 2015. But investment into open source software companies, along with those in other sectors, slowed down significantly in 2016. However, 2017 is shaping up to be another solid year for the open source software sector based on the Crunchbase Q1 2017 VC report.
Key chart:
Austin VC
Key paragraph:
Specifically, twenty-five companies raised $139.68 million in Q1 217, according to Crunchbase data. That’s less than half of the 54 companies raising $343.55 million in Q1 2016. Q1 2017 is even less than Q1 2013 by a hair. In Q1 2013, 41 Austin companies raised $140.44 million. (But hey, at least the deals themselves appear to be bigger.)
Key chart:
Other Q1 Reads
What else was there for Q1 2017? A few more articles for you to read:
- We collated all of the charts from the long-form Global Q1 2017 VC report into a single Slideshare, which you can find here.
- Crunchbase News also took a look at the smart building industry that took into account a pinch of Q2 2017 data. It’s very nearly a Q1 piece, we promise.
- Here’s a look back at the IPO market that we wrote in mid-April that deals mostly with Q1 tech debuts. Again, it’s close enough to be mentioned here.
And, with that, we are done with Q1. I doubt we’ll manage to not write about it again, but, hell, hope springs and so forth.
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