Data Scientist

For years Y Combinator has increased the number of startups accepted into its accelerator program. Each subsequent winter and summer has brought larger cohorts, with the past three classes each seeing more than 300 participating companies. With an increase in batch size, YC has also shifted its focus to include more companies from outside the United States.

Reviewing startup information provided on the 

, we can get a sense for how YC’s geographic focus has changed over time, in addition to cohort growth:

Looking at the breakdown of YC cohorts over time, we can see a clear shift in focus, with 2021 and 2022 both seeing nearly half of all participating companies coming from outside the United States (a big increase from the mere ~16% seen in 2016). Focus shifts at YC are indicative of broader industry sentiments surrounding international deal flow, with opportunities outside of the US gaining in prevalence among notable investors.

In addition to the US market, global markets have always been a key focus at 

. Looking at a similar breakdown of companies pitching on platform in 2022, we see a healthy balance of companies based both inside and outside the United States.

Kai Graham

YC’s Changes and the Shifting Fundraising Landscape

Investor demand, early-stage deal trends, fundraising activity, and other measures of relative market performance can vary materially by geography.

Investors, partners, and startups looking for international opportunities will be happy to know that Stonks’ global user base makes it easier than ever to connect and engage with deals from all over the world.

Breaking down startup investment interest received on Stonks by location, we see strong investment activity across all major regions.

Looking at median intro requests and investment interest by startup, segmented by region, we see the following:

Going Global: Stonks Deals from the World Over

At Stonks, we are fortunate to sit at the intersection of startup investing and fundraising. In just over 10 months, we’ve completed 100 startup demo days, generated $850+ million of investment interest, and seen more than 40,000 user sign ups come through the platform. Stonks continues to see strong engagement from a diverse number of investor types — close to half of all attendees fall into more traditional investor classes (VCs, Angels), with the remaining half of attendees belonging to more non-traditional investor groups (founders, syndicate leads, other accredited investors, etc.).

In addition to partners and startups generating interest through demo days and pitches, a diverse number of investor types continue to actively engage with startups pitching on Stonks, with close to half of all event attendees identifying as VC or Angel investors.

Daily collaboration and interaction with our users enables us to have a finger on the pulse of the startup investing / raising environment — not just from the investor or startup side, but from both. In conjunction with industry reports and research, the following will summarize our findings and highlight the trends we are seeing in datasets both internal and external to Stonks.

As Pitchbook and NVCA mention in their latest 

Generally, seed-stage investments are furthest from the public market, and companies receiving these investments have years ahead before they can hope to join the ranks of the few companies that go on to file an S-1. This has in many ways, insulated seed investments more than the rest of the industry from current economic troubles.

The amount of capital earmarked for startup investing has never been higher. Ripe market conditions, record-breaking funding levels, and an influx of traditional and non-traditional investors in 2021 has helped insulate the world of early-stage investing.

Startup Fundraising and Investing — A Game of Numbers, Maybe Now More Than Ever Before

With headlines increasing mentions of bear markets, inflation, and stagnant IPO / public equity demand, the worlds of startup investing and venture capital continue to show promising trends and insulation from broader market downturns. Despite anecdotal evidence from our users and data from 

 showing signs of startup valuations beginning to degrade, these same data sources suggest strong levels of deal volume to come in future months, albeit at slightly lower valuations.

2021 was a record-breaking year for VC, with many early-stage deals resembling late-stage deals of prior years. According to 

, 2021 saw an accelerated increase in nontraditional investors moving in to VC to participate in or lead deals, with the influx of these investors helping push VC investments to all-time highs. In 2021, deals led by these investors surpassed $138 billion in deal value. Additionally, traditional investors continued to invest heavily in the space, with VC fundraising surpassing $100 billion for the first time on record in 2021.

As we move into the second half of 2022, the record-breaking times of 2021 may seem a distant past, but the numbers continue to support a robust startup investing market with continued demand from investors in early-stage deals. Internal data at Stonks shows strong investment demand from users on platform, with total interest growing significantly over the past six months.

Looking at investment interest generated on Stonks by month, we see relatively strong growth since the start of the year, with June passing $150 million in interest for the first time in company history.

With headlines increasing mentions of bear markets, inflation, and stagnant IPO / public equity demand, the worlds of startup investing and venture capital continue to show promising trends and insulation from broader market downturns.

The Deals Must Go On

At Stonks, we’ve seen RSVP count emerge as a strong indicator of an event’s ability to generate higher levels of investment interest.

While this relationship may not be the most surprising — more RSVPs usually lead to more event attendees and more potential investors expressing interest — it provides an area of focus for demo day hosts and startups looking to maximize investment interest leading up to an event.

The median RSVP count for events generating $5 million or more in investment interest is 1,061 RSVPs. That’s compared to the median RSVP count seen at events generating less than $5 million in interest of 388 (a difference of more than 2.7x). This 388 is not very different from the smallest RSVP count seen within the $5M+ interest events of 363. Additionally, we see:

75% of events generating less than $5M in investment interest had fewer than 516 RSVPs

Event RSVP count is a strong indicator of a Demo Day's ability to generate higher levels of investment interest.

Growing Investment Interest Starts with RSVPs

Following an impressive start to Q1, Stonks saw investment interest on the platform slow on a per startup basis towards the end of March into April. Looking at the numbers, the weeks of March 27th, April 3rd, and April 10th saw 16, 20, and 9 startups receive investment interest on Stonks, respectively. Over those same periods, median investment interest generated per startup remained low, failing to eclipse $350K in any week.

Beginning in early May, we saw a resurgence in investor demand on the platform, with median investment interest generated per startup nearing $1M on a rolling 5-week average basis in early June.

As a platform, we continue to see healthy investor engagement with the platform via RSVPs, attendance, chat activity, introduction requests, and indications of investment interest. Despite negative headlines and pervasive market conditions, we are already beginning to see investor behavior on platform start to return to early-2022 levels!

Posts by Kai Graham

Data Scientist

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Posts by Kai Graham

Data Scientist

YC’s Changes and the Shifting Fundraising Landscape

Going Global: Stonks Deals from the World Over

Startup Fundraising and Investing — A Game of Numbers, Maybe Now More Than Ever Before

The Deals Must Go On

Growing Investment Interest Starts with RSVPs

Demand for Startup Investing Rebounds After Shutting Down in April

Find this blog interesting? Join Stonks today.

Featured Events

For Investors

For Founders

For Partners

Events

Stonks