Karta Labs

Marketplace Startup Fundraising 2025 is live! ?? This is a report that I first did in 2023, and it was so popular that I had to bring it back. Using data from Carta's Peter Walker I cover the following on marketplace fundraising: 1. Seed deal/investment volume, valuations, and round sizes 2. Series A deal/investment volume, valuations, and round sizes 3. Series B deal/investment volume, valuations, and round sizes If you want to see the report, click the link in the comments. As always, please share this with anyone this could help! ??

Price wars! Uber and Lyft had very aggressive price wars to win consumers in each market. According to Scott Gorlick price needed to be in the sweet spot for consumers but ETA was more important. What was delightful was beckoning a car and it being there in minutes. That was the magic moment for consumers. If you were at Uber or Lyft, was this your experience? Comment below. ?? If you want the full live chat use the link below or in the comments. ?? https://lnkd.in/g552rD_K

No one knew Uber would be a success. But it ended up being one of the companies that defined the mobile era. I got to catch up live with my friend Scott Gorlick, who was employee #99 at Uber. We went deep into the early days at Uber and discussed how AI will impact marketplaces. We did this as a live session on Substack, where our subscribers got to attend and participate. The first one was rough, so jump to about 1:20 to get to the good stuff. Like all things startups, it is better to get launched and then iterate. Please leave your feedback in the comments on the post! I also linked to where you can watch it on Youtube. ?? https://lnkd.in/g552rD_K

Holiday Present! ?? As I reflect on the year I am thankful to have the privilege to work with so many marketplace founders. ?? Just looking at my Intro, I am so proud to see 5 ? across the board. The year is almost up but I wanted to carve out some extra time this week for any founders that need help. I am lowering my normal rate on Intro from $300 -> $100 through the end of the year but you have to book this week. I expect the slots to book fast! Thank you again! ?? ?? ??

Priced Seeds are out SAFEs are in. It feels increasingly infrequent to see a priced seed round right now. Most deals I am seeing are SAFEs though founders want to do priced rounds. A lot of it comes down to not being able to find leads in many seed raises. Founders just then raise what they can with a SAFE and do a clean up priced Seed before a Series A in about 12 months. Does this match what others are seeing? As always thank you Peter Walker and Carta for the great data.