Link to original article: https://pitchbook.com/news/reports/q1-2023-launch-report-enterprise-saas

After a resilient 2022, enterprise SaaS shows signs of further slowdown in Q1 2023 

Driven by blockbuster deals and rising unicorns, the enterprise software-as-a-service (SaaS) space remained strong in 2022 despite a challenging economic environment. 2022 was the second-biggest year in terms of funding, following a record 2021. Still, there are signs of a slowdown in line with larger market trends in 2023. The broad vertical, focusing on software services to businesses, saw a rise in deal value, though that can largely be attributed to Stripe’s blockbuster deal skewing the figure. The vertical is the latest area of new coverage by PitchBook analysts. The Q1 2023 Launch Report: Enterprise SaaS lays out the trends, segments, top deals, and investors in the space.

Key takeaways include: 

• Q1 2023 saw $13.9 billion generated across 363 deals. Deal value saw an increase of 18.5% from the previous quarter, attributed largely to Stripe’s $6.5 billion raise. Without the Stripe deal, deal value was down 37.0%. Total deal count decreased slightly at 8.6%.
• Stripe, CloudKitchens, and Anduril topped the list of VC-backed startups that have raised the most capital, while investors like Alumni Ventures, Tiger Global, and Andreessen Horowitz were some of the most active in the space.
• Within the vertical, the segments of enterprise resource planning startups (which provide software that helps businesses automate processes and meet goals), customer relationship management companies, and business analytic platform startups top the list of some of the most active segments.