KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 7): Venture and growth investors in private companies scaled back their investment pace significantly, as the slump in the public markets stretched into the third quarter, according to Crunchbase — which tracks trends, investments and news of global companies from start-ups to the Fortune 1000.

In a report on Thursday (Oct 6), the firm said venture funding for the third quarter of 2022 totalled US$81 billion, down by US$90 billion (53%) year over year and by US$40 billion (33%) quarter over quarter.

It said while funding for the most recent quarter will increase a little in the coming months as stealth fundings are announced, this is a huge drop in funding compared to prior quarters.

Crunchbase said this past quarter is the lowest quarterly funding amount since the first quarter of 2020, with US$70.6 billion in venture funding.

Crunchbase said global late-stage funding, which slowed significantly in the second quarter, continued its downward trend in the third quarter of 2022.

It said a total of US$40 billion was invested in late-stage venture and private equity to venture-backed companies in the third quarter, down 40% quarter over quarter and 63% year over year.

Late-stage venture and growth funding showed the largest increase in 2021 and now has dipped the most in 2022, with the most recent past quarter on par with first-quarter 2020, it said.

The firm said global early-stage funding totalled US$34 billion in the third quarter of 2022, a decline of 25% quarter over quarter and 39% year over year.

Meanwhile, Series A funding was the least impacted at early stage, down 23% year over year, while Series B fundings dropped 54% for the same time frame.

Data contained in this report comes directly from Crunchbase, and is based on reported data. Data reported is as of Oct 3, 2022.