Venture Partner @ High Water Venture Partners | Senior Advisory Member, Co-Founder, Co-Chairman
Outlook on the Startup Investment Landscape of 2024 And what this means for your product, idea, and vision The money is tight. Especially for early-stage and pre-revenue startups, securing funding in 2023 was difficult. The total global VC investment volume for this year to date is down almost 70% of what it was in 2021. There are two reasons for this: Reason 1: VCs have their money locked up in their portfolios The onset of the global economic slowdown can be traced back to early 2022, marked by the Russia-Ukraine war, escalating energy costs, and an overall deceleration in economic growth. These factors collectively sparked rampant inflation, compelling financial markets worldwide to counteract with significant interest rate hikes. For the first time in over a decade, the era of ‘cheap money’ came to an end, necessitating more thought-through investment decisions. This shift notably affected large corporations, leading to a reduction in their investment capacity. By Mats Bauer
