The venture funding spigot, which gushed like a fire hose in 2021 and early 2022, is all but drip-drip-drip now.

By the end of the first quarter of 2023, the fundraising momentum that began in 2021 had largely evaporated, with $11.7bn closed across 99 funds in the US — on track for the worst performance since the fourth quarter of 2017, according to a PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor report issued late 5 April.