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Key Takeaways
November was a weak month for venture studio startup funding
Only six startups in our database raised meaningful rounds
These rounds were led by Gentree Fund, Georgian, Impact Labs, Jungle Ventures, Spring Lake Equity Partners
The VCs who typically lead venture studio financings did not lead any rounds this month
Only one exit and terms were not disclosed. This is the third month without a major studio startup exit
Headcount across all studio startups grew 1% vs 2% in October and 1% in September
Fewer startups added headcount vs prior months
However, fewer startups reduced headcount
Redesign Health and Cyberstarts dominated the fastest growing startups list this month
Almost every top grower was in healthcare or cybersecurity
Fastest growing studio startups
Studio startup summary metrics
Fastest growing studio startups
Cyberstarts startup Island, a secure web browser for the enterprise, raised a $60mm series B extension led by Georgian (VCAonline.com)
Rocket Internet startup Ofload, a freight forwarding company, raised $60mm led by Jungle Ventures (SmartCompany)
High Alpha startup Zylo, a SaaS management company, raised $31.5mm led by Baird Ventures with participation from Spring Lake Equity Partners (FinSMEs)
Heartbeat Labs startup Betriebsarzt Service, a Berlin-based occupational safety service, raised €6,8mm from Impact Labs (Crunchbase)
Wright Partners startup AgriAku, a Jakarta-based agriculture tech company, raised $5mm from Gentree Fund (Crunchbase)
Kernal Labs startup Forma Labs, a holographic meeting platform, raised $3.8mm (Crunchbase)
Studio startup exit
DaftCode startup Nethone, a Warsaw based fraud prevention service that had raised $11mm, was acquired by Mangopay. Terms were not disclosed (PYMNTS)
Venture studios with highest hitrate (exits + growers)
Methodology and data limitations
Startup and studio data comes from our database of venture studios and their startups. See data methodology and limitations for more background.
In this analysis we use employee counts as a proxy for traction, but this is an imperfect metric. Some startups accelerate hiring ahead of revenue and other startups may be growing revenue quickly but have not accelerated their hiring. More recently, it’s common for even high performing startups to limit hiring or reduce headcount to prepare for future macro conditions.
Not all funding or acquisitions are announced, and those cases will be undercounted in the summary metrics above.
We measure startups / year or startup velocity by taking the number of startups launched since 2017 and dividing by 5. This figure undercounts studios who do not disclose all their startups.
Conclusion
As venture capital funding has dried up, so has the ability for venture studio startups to raise external money. However, headcount across the industry has continued to grow and fewer startups are laying off employees than in prior months. Venture studio startups appear to be faring better than your typical VC backed startup.
The bright spots are in cybersecurity and healthcare, especially those startups launched by Cyberstarts and Redesign Health - well funded studios with deep industry connections.