As valuation continue to compress at venture-backed companies, even early-stage startups have begun to feel the pinch.

During the 2022 market downturn, early-stage companies — those at series B or earlier — held up better than their late-stage counterparts, reaching a median valuation of $45 million in the third quarter of 2022, up 50 percent from the highest quarterly figure before 2021. One reason for this is that early-stage startups are further removed from potential exits, so the impact from the heightened volatility in public markets is less severe than that experienced by late-stage companies. READ MORE