Core Insights - The venture capital market in 2025 is characterized by capital concentration, rising valuations for scaled companies, and significant influence from artificial intelligence (AI) [1] - Female founders are experiencing a selective and concentrated venture environment, with record capital captured in the US but declining deal values in Europe [1] US Highlights - Aggregate valuation for female-founded unicorns reached a record high of $481 billion, following a low in 2023 [1] - Exit value for female founders more than doubled year-over-year, increasing their share of total US exit count to 25 percent [1] - AI accounted for approximately two-thirds of all VC dollars invested in female-founded startups, with over $30 billion from Scale AI and Anthropic alone [1] - Female founders captured 27.7 percent of total US VC deal value, marking an all-time high [1] - US VC-backed female-founded companies raised a record $73.6 billion in 2025, despite a decline in total deal count [1] Europe Highlights - Aggregate valuation for female-founded unicorns in Europe reached a record high, indicating continued exit potential [1] - Exit activity in Europe shifted towards fewer but larger outcomes, with total exit value rising despite lower transaction counts [1] - Median pre-money valuations rose across company cohorts in Europe, reflecting increased selectivity [1] - Female-founded companies in Europe saw a downward trend in their share of overall VC deal activity year-over-year [1] - European female-founded companies experienced declining deal value and count amid a continued pullback in megadeals [1]

Core Insights - PitchBook has launched PitchBook Valuation Estimates, a daily framework aimed at providing a consistent, independent, and data-informed valuation signal for over 15,000 VC-backed companies [1][2] Group 1: Valuation Model - The new model combines machine learning with PitchBook's private-market data, public-market signals, and capital-structure insights to determine valuations [1] - Unlike traditional backward-looking valuations based on financial reports and comparable transactions, this model offers daily valuations by incorporating both public and private market data [2] - The model updates last-known valuations using public and private comparables and includes company-specific indicators such as employee growth and company age [2] Group 2: Integration and Product Development - The valuation model is integrated into the overall PitchBook platform, enhancing its offerings in the private market space [3] - This launch is part of a broader strategy by Morningstar and PitchBook to expand their coverage of private markets, following the introduction of various indices tracking companies transitioning from private to public markets [3][4] - Recent product launches include the Morningstar PitchBook GenAI 20 index, which tracks the 20 largest GenAI companies, and several Evergreen Fund Indexes [4]