🗺️ State of Venture Q1’25 Report

👋 Hey — Egemen here.

I’ve done a ton of reading this week, and boy oh boy, what a week!

We're seeing fewer bets but much bigger stakes recently.

Although the overall venture deal numbers dip. the VC landscape is on fire.

AI startups are taking pretty much all the investments.

Along with a full VC report of Q1 2025, I’m sharing a couple platforms to help you hire faster, and understand how VCs think.

We’re also touching upon tariffs, volatility and the startup exit dilemma.

Here’s a snapshot of what’s on the menu today:

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🧠 Deep-Dive: State of Venture Q1’25 Report

I was recently reading the State of Venture Report for the first quarter of this year by CB Insights.

Well, all throughout Q1'25, AI companies captured a record-breaking 20% of global venture deals.

Early-stage funding hit new heights with $2.7M median deal size, effectively validating the investors' selective strategy.

Unlike some previous quarters, we had a couple “mega rounds” this past 90 days.

Record 8 early-stage AI mega-rounds exceeding $100M. A couple noteworthy mentions:
- OpenAI’s $40B fundraise – which we covered here
- Google’s Wiz acquisition for $33B – which we covered here

Global funding hit $121B despite fewer deals.
👉 Just stop and think about this one for a minute. The level of competition in from the VC perspective is incredible.

AI dominance will continue to grow.
The vast majority of VCs invest extremely selectively.
Interesting enough, startup studios do not perform well at all – almost no success stories at a global scale.

• AI deals doubled their share since ChatGPT's 2022 launch.

• Billion-dollar M&A exits reached an all-time quarterly high.

Wild times, wild times ahead.

Check out what our readers also enjoy reading:

🗺️ Method: Understanding How VCs Think

⚾️ Catch: Tariffs, Volatility And The Startup Exit Dilemma

If you’re a startup dealing with physical goods, supply chain or logstics – I’m sure you heard the term “tariff” in the last 7 days.

For the startup ecosystem that has long awaited the return of robust exit volumes, the uncertainty in the markets sparked by tariffs couldn’t come at a worse time.

Don Butler from Thomvest Ventures wrote an amazing piece on Crunchbase.

☝️ Scaled This Past Week: Plaid

In a secondary sale, Plaid raises $575M - it’s the scale of the week!

Despite this being a down round, Plaid reported a 25% year-over-year revenue increase in 2024, driven by significant growth in anti-fraud services (400%) and payments-related revenues (250%)

The round was led by investors including Franklin Templeton, Fidelity, and BlackRock, with continued participation from existing stakeholders such as NEA and Ribbit Capital.

Analysts argue that an IPO in mid-to-late 2026 with a valuation between $8.5 billion and $10 billion, depending on market conditions and the company's growth trajectory.

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