2022 is off to a slow start, but many factors are at play

The first several months of 2022 saw a seemingly endless slew of shocks, from geopolitical uncertainty to volatility in financial markets. While many of these trends are intertwined, the current market environment poses significant challenges for many expansion-stage companies that were preparing for exits or other major liquidity events. While opinions differ on the length and severity of obstacles in the current macroenvironment, there are also hidden nuances that point toward paths forward.

Some of our key findings:

• After 2021’s record-breaking heights, 2022 is off to a slow start for exits: 2021 saw $1.2 trillion in exit value achieved by expansion-stage companies in the United States, across well over 1,800 liquidity events. After such a peak, a cyclical pullback perhaps could have been anticipated.
  
• While most sectors will eventually be affected, some could exhibit more resilience: Health tech is still poised to see innovation and strong demand based on macro factors, while fintech could experience consolidation.
  
• Thanks to record-level financing, many companies are positioned well: Proven businesses that recently raised hundreds of millions of dollars in investment capital can retool plans to weather current market volatility and impacts to their business.
  

As history has shown, it was inevitable that a market correction would occur at some point. Valuations returning to more reasonable levels is a necessary part of any market cycle.

–Heather Gates, Audit & Assurance Private Growth leader, Deloitte & Touche LLP

A public forum for private financial markets

Deloitte and PitchBook have collaborated to produce a distinct methodology and array of data sets in order to answer some of the most pressing questions for venture capital and private equity-backed companies. The Road to Next series focuses on critical issues companies and their backers face, covering liquidity concerns, investor strategies, macroeconomic pressures, important regulations, market dynamics, and more.

In each edition, Deloitte subject-matter specialists discuss the issues dominating industry discussions in the current environment, especially the hurdles that growing companies face as they scale. As new market trends develop, additional themes and data sets will be featured to address potential concerns that private companies may have, whether they are planning to stay private or prepare for a new phase of their journey.

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