It seems Round C of $102M was just in June 2021.
https://techcrunch.com/2021/06/23/vercel-raises-102m-series-...
What are the reasons for two rounds so close to each other?
What are the reasons for two rounds so close to each other?
Page 19
FTA:
It’s hardly surprising that many GPs were afraid Covid-19 would put an end to the past decade’s golden era of private equity fund-raising. But those fears turned out to be unwarranted. Global fund-raising of $989 billion was a decline from 2019’s all-time record of $1.09 trillion (see Figure 18). But it was still the third-highest total in history, and if you add in the $83 billion raised for SPACs, it was the second highest. All told, the industry has raised almost $5 trillion in capital over the past five years. Buyout funds alone raised about $300 billion in 2020, or $340 billion if you include SPAC capital aimed at buyout-type targets, estimated at $41 billion (see Figure 19).
This data corroborates first and secondhand experience from being close to people on both sides of the table wrt technology funding. Most people aren't shy about discussing the topic as it's just taken as a fact of life in the current environment.
The amount of money flowing into venture capital is unprecedented. I run a startup that raised a seed round in June. I’m a co-founder but I’m our CTO, not CEO and I still get 5-10 emails per day from random VCs asking if we need funding.
There’s no way this ends well. But I think it’ll take a decade to shake out.
We raised our pre-seed round in 2020 without anything, just a pitch deck, and fully remote. We didn't meet our investors in person until several months after closing on the round.
We raised our Seed this June based on having roughly 100 companies using our product, a good percentage paying us. So while I wouldn't say we raised our Seed round with PMF, we were (and are) showing signs of PMF.
So yeah, our product is a bit past the MVP stage, but not by much. We still have bugs that come up almost every day, and we fix them as fast as we can. However, the product has matured greatly in the last six months.
- positive reputation. Other founders enjoyed their experience.
- provide value through their network. This is the foundation YC built themselves on. Investors that introduce you to paying customers, other founders, other investors, etc.
- leave you alone and only help when you ask for it. These are the best types of investors. They provide advice only when you ask.
Those are the most important things.
if you have a different physical look or unfamiliar background, the metrics for your existing company are way more important and the bar is much much higher and the multiples investors accept are way way lower.
or just do a crypto version, which is much more inclusive, global, faster, and leapfrogs this rodeo.
How do you think it will end?
When that happens, lots of VC-fueled companies will shut down.
In other words, I think it ends with a return to a funding climate similar to 2015-2016 where money was available, but money also wasn't free. And financing rounds were smaller.
There will be much more resources that can be bought with money, so money will be worth more, compensating for any bubble that is created right now.