VC Investor Confidence Drops in ‘Increasingly Uncertain Macroeconomic Environment’

The share of venture capital (VC) investors who expect VC funding to rise over the next year has fallen by 20 percentage points over the last six months, according to PitchBook.

The share dropped from 58% in the second half of 2024 to 38% today, the capital market intelligence platform said in its H1 VC Tech Survey released Wednesday (June 4).

In addition, the share of investors who expect a moderate decline in VC funding over the next year rose from 9% in the second half of 2024 to 28% today, according to the report.

“The plurality of respondents remains neutral, indicating a shift toward risk-managed expectations rather than panic,” the report said.

The report attributed these shifts to “an increasingly uncertain macroeconomic environment” created by changes in trade policy, artificial intelligence (AI) and the fundraising landscape.

Eighty-four percent of investors expect the recently announced tariffs to cause mild to moderate disruption, per the report.

“Compared with the H2 2024 VC Tech Survey, the responses in this edition reflect a mood of recalibration rather than retreat — VC investors are responding not with panic but with strategic adjustments as they navigate geopolitical uncertainty and technological transition,” the report said.

Fifty-three percent of investors are still actively looking for deals, according to the report.

It was reported Wednesday that one of the world’s largest investors, Singapore’s state-owned investment group Temasek, slashed its investments in early-stage companies by 88% over a three-year period.

The group shifted its focus to more conservative investments due to rising interest rates, its loss of hundreds of millions of dollars on some collapsed startups, and its belief that it is now harder for high-risk unlisted companies to go public.

In April, it was reported that venture capitalists were turning to the secondary market because public listings were on hold.

The secondary market was once considered a costly, last-option resort for investors scrambling to sell offstakes, but it has become an essential feature of VC investing.

The PitchBook report released Wednesday also asked VC investors which sectors are most likely to be disrupted by AI. The great share of investors, 52%, singled out FinTech. This was followed by healthcare (45%), enterprise tech (45%), and transportation/logistics (16%).