Hi there, 

Are tech valuations bouncing back? 

Median tech valuations recovered slightly in Q1’23 for Series A, B, and C startups.

Those rounds actually experienced quarter-over-quarter valuation growth for the first time in at least a year. Against the backdrop of a frozen IPO market and slowing venture activity, this is some optimistic but surprising news in the land of venture.

But late-stage deals remain under pressure. The median valuation for Series D+ rounds dipped to $0.9B — just below the threshold for unicorn status.

CB Insights clients can download the full report for a complete breakdown of historical data across all stages, including:

• Valuations

• Deal sizes

• Deal volume

• Typical deal terms

Get the 20-page Tech Valuations Q1’23 Report here.

Divergent

Insurtech funding rebounded in Q1’23, rising 40% quarter-over-quarter.

This stands in contrast to the venture ecosystem at large, which saw a 13% drop over the same period.

Despite the jump, Q1’23 still marked insurtech’s second-lowest quarterly funding level in the last 4 years.

Learn more about insurtech’s exceptional quarter in our State of Insurtech Q1’23 Report.

YC x climate

Y Combinator is actively investing in “frontier tech,” like climate tech solutions.

While carbon tracking accounted for 18% of YC’s climate tech investments in Q1’23, it was only the firm’s No. 2 priority in the space.

So what was its top focus in climate tech? Find out in our YC climate tech investment thesis map.

Soon, CB Insights customers will be able to use our Market Reports to dig deeper into the areas where YC could be fostering new competition, like carbon management & accounting:

Crime fighters

Minimizing losses due to stolen goods, or shrink, is becoming more urgent and growing in scale.

Retailers saw a 27% jump in organized retail crime (ORC) incidents in 2021, and companies like REI and Starbucks are closing stores amid the shift.

Retail Dive. Dani James (@DJames1264) dives into Walmart’s direct-to-consumer divestments and quotes CB Insights Principal Analyst Laura Kennedy.

Reuters. Chris Thomas (@chrisjacthomas) and Yantoultra Ngui (@yantoultrangui) discuss a potential deal between Temasek and BlueStone and mention CB Insights data.

The Economic Times. The outlet covers the performance of public companies post-IPO using CB Insights data.
 

I love you. 

Anand 

@asanwal 

P.S. What key fintech trends should you be watching in 2023? Our analysts break it all down here.