State of Startups in the Southeast 2023

Incredible insights from BIP Ventures in their State of Startups in the Southeast 2023.

Key takeaways...

🐢 Shift from 'growth at any cost' to more responsible venture capital funding.

💰 Increase in the size of Seed investments in the Southeast.

💵 Fewer startups gaining funding, but those that do are getting larger checks.

🏥 Majority of funding is going to proven sectors like SaaS, Healthcare, and Fintech.

🤖 Notable absence of massive AI funding rounds in the Southeast compared to regions like the Bay Area, New York, and Boston.

🌱 Major emphasis on sustainable growth.

📊 Southeast shows a tendency to be a stable VC investment environment, with deal patterns similar to other major markets but on a lagged schedule.

By the numbers...

🔹 Capital deployed in 1H 2023: $5.8 Billion.

🔹 Comparison of capital deployed: $14.7B in 2H 2022.

🔹 Average check size increased by 22% from $5.5M in 2018 to $6.7M in 2023 YTD.

🔹 75% increase in Seed deal size from $0.15M in 2018 to $0.26M in 2023 YTD.

🔹 Increase in capital deployed annually from 2018 to projected full-year 2023: $1.8 Billion ($10.1B to $11.9B).