Depending on how you look at it, the venture and startup industry is having a terrific year, a really bad one — or one that’s somewhere in between.

Through the first three quarters of 2025, the amount of money venture capitalists have invested in startups is near record levels and has already surpassed the full-year totals of all but one year, according to the latest data from industry-research firm PitchBook and the National Venture Capital Association, the industry’s trade group.

But venture firms themselves are on track to raise the smallest amount of new capital since 2017 and to post their third down year in a row. Meanwhile, exits — when startups are acquired or go public — are up, but the value seen in them is nowhere near the boom times of 2020 and 2021.

That combination of data

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