VC Sentiment Surveys

dot.LA regularly surveys the heads of Southern California venture capital firms to get an understanding of what they're seeing ahead for startups and the local economy.

2022 was a tough year for venture capital. Venture deals fell throughout the year as the economic environment became uncertain.

But despite the economic downturn, VCs still flocked to LA’s growing tech and startup scene.

We asked more than 30 investors to share which VCs are the best Los Angeles has to offer. The following list reflects those who received two or more votes.

A few familiar faces popped up, such as Bonfire Ventures’ Mark Mullen and TenOneTen’s Minnie Ingersoll, who both received the most votes in previous years. This year, Mullen topped the list with six votes, while Ingersoll and M13’s Anna Barber both came in second with three votes.

The below results are listed according to the number of votes received. In the case of a tie, the names are listed alphabetically by last name.

Here are LA’s top VCs of 2022 according to their peers:

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Evan Xie

Los Angeles, like the rest of the startup world, saw a dip in global venture funding. As of November 2022, funding reached $22 billion, which is 69% lower than the previous year.

Despite the massive downturn in funding due to the decline in technology stocks at the end of 2021 combined with concerns about rising inflation, it did not stop the startups on this list from raising funding. We asked more than 30 leading L.A.-based investors for their take on the hottest firms in the region. (We also asked VCs not to pick any of their own portfolio companies, and vetted the list to ensure they stuck to that rule.)

They selected a few live-shopping platforms, space startups and payment software companies and we've organized the list based on the amount of capital raised as of January, according to data from PitchBook.

Here are the eight L.A. startups VCs have their eyes on as they look ahead to 2023.

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Photo by Alonso Reyes on Unsplash

Much like the rest of the U.S., the Los Angeles region is facing a venture capital slowdown.

Venture capitalists are investing less money and striking fewer deals with L.A. startups lately, according to PitchBook Data and interviews with experts. There’s been a sharp drop in the amount of money flowing back to investors, too, with a decline in public offerings or other exits by VC-backed companies.

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