A total of 8,553 venture capital (VC) funding deals with disclosed funding values were announced during the first half (H1) of 2023. Meanwhile, the volume of these deals declined by 35.3% year-on-year (YoY) compared to 13,223 VC deals with disclosed funding values announced during H1 2022. However, the decline was more prominent for high-value deals, reveals GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

An analysis of GlobalData’s Financial Deals Database also revealed that deal volume across all funding sizes declined in H1 2023 compared to H1 2022. Low-value* deals accounted for the highest share of the VC deals volume during H1 2023. These deals accounted for 72.2% share of the total number of VC deals with disclosed funding values announced globally during H1 2023. The volume of low-value deals declined by 29.3% from 8,738 deals announced during H1 2022 to 6,181 deals announced during H1 2023.

Meanwhile, high-value deals (valued more than $100 million) accounted for just 1.9% share of the total number of VC deals with disclosed funding values during H1 2023. The volume of these deals declined at a much higher rate compared to low-value deals. The number of high-value deals declined by 69.7% from 531 deals announced during H1 2022 to 161 deals announced during H1 2023.

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “As almost all the key markets in the world are experiencing economic headwinds, investors also seem to have become more cautious while committing big investments, which is reflected in the significantly higher rate of decline registered in high-value deals.”

Mid-size funding deals (valued more than $10 million and less than or equal to $100 million) volume also declined by 44.1% YoY from 3,954 deals in H1 2022 to 2,211 deals in H1 2023. These deals accounted for 25.9% share of the total number of VC deals with disclosed funding values announced globally during H1 2023.

*Investment value less than or equal to $10 million