Welcome to the first publication of the UBV newsletter!
How did Venture Capital investments perform over the last quarter?
Despite continued geopolitical tension, sustained inflation rates, macroeconomic instability and banking sector turmoil, global venture capital investments in the first quarter of 2023 surged 10% from the previous quarter to $95 billion.
This surge was, however, mostly due to record fundraising rounds by OpenAI (10$ billion) and Stripe (6.5$ billion).
Indeed, excluding the outlier investments, US funding declined around 7%, and global funding dropped 9%. This is perfectly consistent with the current macroeconomic environment, as venture capital is one of the most interest rate-sensitive investment strategies.
On the contrary, China experienced a 21% increase in VC funding compared to the last quarter, due to a massive liquidity injection by its central bank, which is pursuing a monetary policy in bitter contrast with the rest of the world.