After a bleak 2023, startup founders and VCs eye funding frenzy in 2024
After a dismal 2023 characterised by layoffs and a sharp decline in funding, founders and VC are more optimistic for the year ahead, with 92% of startups expecting to raise fresh capital.
It's official: 2023 was a bleak year on just about every front for the Australian startup sector, with a sharp decline in total funding for the sector, widespread layoffs, down rounds, fewer active investors and no new local unicorns created.
But ever optimistic investors and founders remain hopeful that 2024 will be much better, with 'green shoots' emerging and most startups exiting the downturn in stronger positions than they entered it. And 2024 could be the year where almost every startup in the sector looks to raise fresh capital.
The data in the third The State of Australian Startup Funding Report, a joint initiative of Cut Through Venture and Folklore Ventures, confirms there was a significant decline in funding flowing into Australian startups last year.
Overall funding contracted by 53% from the previous calendar year, taking funding levels back to what they were in 2020. While there was a global pullback on investment in startups, the 54% decrease in the local market is bigger than the global retraction of 38%.
