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).