---
title: Skittish Investors Are Pulling Back on Startup Funding
description: As startups struggle to meet expectations
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published: '2016-02-16T20:32:55.000Z'
modified: '2016-02-16T20:32:55.000Z'
section: Business
tags:
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word_count: 204
canonical: https://money.com/venture-capital-funding-startups-decline/
type: Article
source: structured-blocks
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![DoorDash Co-Founder and CEO Tony Xu speaks onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt at Pier 48 on September 10, 2014 in San Francisco, California.](https://img.money.com/2016/02/160216_inv_vcfirms.jpg?crop=0px%2C53px%2C2100px%2C1182px&quality=85)
*DoorDash Co-Founder and CEO Tony Xu speaks onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt at Pier 48 on September 10, 2014 in San Francisco, California.*

Venture capital investment in technology startups, boiling as recently as late last year, has cooled substantially in recent months, as investors have found they have less appetite for risk and startups have struggled to [maintain](http://www.wsj.com/articles/food-delivery-startup-doordash-is-raising-more-than-110-million-1455639655) momentum amid lofty expectations.

DoorDash Inc., a startup founded in 2013, for instance, is on the cusp of completing a round of investment that will leave the food-delivery service valued at roughly $700 million, far below the $1 billion valuation the company aimed for when it started fundraising last fall, according to The Wall Street *Journal*.

Last year venture capital was getting pumped into up to 10 companies a month with valuations of $1 billion or more, the *Journal* reports. In the past several months, by contrast, just four companies have raised their first billion. A number of startups, like [jet.com](http://jet.com) and Beepi Inc, have humbled fundraising goals to reflect the cooler investing climate.

Investors may be reacting to the stiff competition on-demand services like DoorDash face, from rivals like GrubHub and heavyweights like Uber. Faced with stark economic realities, many such services have also had to amend ambitious promises made to both customers and employees, like lowering delivery feeds paid to drivers and raising the prices they charge.

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