Sentiment might have steadied, but deals are down. In January, Australia’s biggest VCs told Capital Brief the bar for investment had risen in the AI era.
The Q2 Cut Through Quarterly is the first market-wide look at what that discipline has produced: a $1.7 billion quarter capping the second-strongest first half on record — and 64 deals, the lowest Cut Through has ever recorded, with Firmus and Airwallex accounting for 70% of the money.
The cost of that discipline is hitting a specific cohort: companies that raised during the 2021–22 boom. The word “SaaSpocalypse” doesn’t appear in the report.
The report’s investor survey is candid about what’s behind the drought, and it’s not the companies themselves. “The market is slow right now,” one investor told the survey.
