Record Highs, Record Lows: Tracking the Shifting VC landscape
I’m a firm believer that, in business and in life, before looking at the road ahead it is essential to look in the rear-view mirror, assessing the relevant landscape of challenges and opportunities.
As we approach the time of year for predictions, resolutions and strategizing for the year ahead, for this edition of Venture Legal, let’s assess the challenges and opportunities VCs have encountered in 2025.
In this week’s feature story, I examine some key challenges including:
⭐The steep decline in fund manager cash, reflecting the ongoing LP liquidity crisis.
⭐Persistent down rounds that have been part of a necessary compromise to achieve liquidity.
⭐Billions of dollars sitting “trapped in startups.”
Opportunities were also abundant, including:
⭐The rise of solo-led funds, which accounted for more than half of emerging funds last year.
⭐Total merger value hitting its highest total since 2021.
⭐Enterprise AI becoming the fastest-growing software category in history – with LegalTech setting record highs.
➡️Read the full feature story here: Venture Capital in 2025 – Assessing Challenges and Strategic Opportunities
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Alternative Legal Services Providers (ALSPs): A Look Back, and What’s Ahead
Professional services, including legal, stand at an AI inflection point, with rapid changes ongoing and even greater transformations on the horizon ahead – and sometimes, in order to look forward, it helps to first also take a look back. For this edition of Venture Legal, I wanted to look back at the evolution of a…
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The Future of AI + LegalTech @ SF Tech Week
As cloud computing and AI expert David Linthicum recently wrote, “AI is often described as a transformative technology, but transformation is anything but easy.” That’s why, as AI transforms the legal sector, it was imperative to convene a panel during SF Tech Week composed of legal industry leaders who’ve made AI work – Okta’s Russell…
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LegalTech Goes Global! (Part 2)
In just the past two weeks, since publishing Venture Legal’s LegalTech Goes Global (Part 1): As VC-funding startups rapidly scale globally, this week’s edition of Venture Legal is Part 2 of the LegalTech Goes Global series. This week I’m exploring: Follow me on Substack and subscribe to read the featured story! Venture Legal,…
