Todd Poole, Director of Venture Investments at HPE Pathfinder, presents the “Focus on Value, Not Valuation: A Crash Course in VC Trends and Fundraising in 2022” tutorial at the May 2022 Embedded Vision Summit.
The past year has been record-breaking for founders and funders alike. Over the last 4 quarters, US venture capitalists have deployed a staggering $330B across nearly 17,000 deals, while simultaneously raising an additional $128B for new funds. During the same time period, the founders behind these venture-backed startups created $774B in exit value from IPOs, SPACs and acquisitions.
Valuations have reached all-time highs, the industry is awash in capital, and it’s never been easier to start a company, especially for founders innovating in areas like edge, AI/ML and computer vision. But how long will the party last? What should a startup keep in mind when thinking about fundraising? In this talk, Poole outlines the basic dynamics behind raising venture capital, establishes current market conditions, identifies recent startup fundraising trends and helps founders and early startup employees in edge AI and vision start-ups prepare themselves for the road ahead.
See here for a PDF of the slides.
