When is the best time to fundraise for your startup?
Comparing the US VC market to the Global Iranian VC market
Iratel Ventures specialises in empowering and funding global Iranian entrepreneurs. These could be local entrepreneurs who want to become global or entrepreneurs in Western Europe and North America who are already thinking global.
In a recent report to our Limited Partners (investors), we analysed two years worth of deal flow data, more than 1500 companies, to see the seasonality of the Global Iranian VC market. We then compared this with the US market. As a more mature market, the US VC market sees very little volatility in deal flow volumes. However, as a young market and a young VC firm, we see large swings in the Global Iranian VC market.
We see the largest number of deals in March, which coincides with Norooz. This is when many investors and entrepreneurs want to close their books and start the new year afresh.
The months of April and August are the quietest, for good reasons. April is just after Norooz and August is in the middle of the summer.
Interestingly, July is a high month for global activity where many accelerators start their intake but it is a quieter month in the local ecosystem.
Taking into account our split of local to global deal flow, we see that this data could be useful for 40% of the deals we see. Therefore, we recommend that startups raise towards the end of Q2 (April-June or Ordibehesht-Tir).
It is important to note that this is based only on our deal flow data and not on actual funding activity. However, it serves as a good guide.
We are lucky to share our our experience of building and investing in high performing teams with you. Feel free to comment or come along to our next Breakfast Series to discuss technology, leadership and global startups.
This is the fifteenth in a series of posts about our investment criteria and ecosystem resources which was also posted on LinkedIn. We’d love to hear from teams with crazy (but commercial) startups. Get in touch or attend our breakfast series. Finally, don’t forget to get your IV Score to prepare for your next VC meeting.
