In our quarterly State of Private Markets report, Carta pinpoints trends across the venture capital ecosystem. We use the aggregated and anonymized data of more than 23,000 companies on Carta’s platform. Together, they represent more than $2 trillion in post-money valuation and more than 250,000 startup investors.
In the third quarter of 2021, U.S. venture capital maintained the frenzied pace from the first half of 2021. In just nine months, companies using Carta’s cap table platform have raised nearly 50% more capital than in all of 2020. While every part of the venture ecosystem has seen gains, late-stage rounds continue to accumulate more and more of total venture capital investment.
Key highlights
- Unicorns are no longer a rarity. The median post-money valuation for a Series D company surpassed $1 billion in Q3 of 2021.
- Fundraising benchmarks are changing rapidly: Equity dilution in Series A and B rounds continues to shift in favor of founders.
- Great talent sets the terms: A record 86% of employee departures were initiated by the employee (as opposed to the company) last quarter.
In the full report, we dive into these trends and examine others—including a spike in early-stage deals, an increased interest in secondary liquidity, and where venture capital ecosystems are growing quickly outside the hubs in California and New York.
