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Last year, we knew that venture capital firms had begun raising less money. And last week, CB Insights released some data showing how VCs were investing in companies less in the final quarter of 2015.
Here’s even more data on just how bad last quarter was for startups trying to raise money.
PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association, using data from Thomson Reuters, found that $11.3 billion was pumped into startups in Q4, down 32 percent in value from the previous quarter. Their MoneyTree report says that $58.8 billion was invested in startups throughout the 2015 calendar year.
Early-stage (Series A) investment rounds declined by 9 percent from the third quarter, though seed and early-stage deals were 23 percent greater in dollar amount than the year before. The key takeaway: Deal flow is slowing a bit, and VC firms are getting stingier about who they give money to.
Private equity firms marking down the value of portfolio startups, companies raising down rounds and other negative indicators are prompting investors to get thriftier. Some venture capitalists, like Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures, say that because it’s going to get harder for startups to get capital, we’re going to start seeing a bunch more dead unicorns.
Though the PwC-NVCA report hardly says that the tech bubble is exploding, it’s more evidence that money is getting tighter through the industry. You can read more about it here, and download the report’s data here.
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This article originally appeared on Recode.net.