When did the startup boom peak?

The startup market is global in footprint, varied in focus, diverse in business model and constantly evolving. The venture capital market, meanwhile, is slower to molt, but it’s also changed in the last decade.

Startups and their financial backers went a bit nuts last year, raising too much money, often at unsustainable prices. We’re now watching a collective hangover work its way through the global startup markets.

You know all of that. This afternoon, we’re looking at a related matter. Yes, charts that once only pointed up are now only pointing down, but when did we reach the local maximum? Both startup and venture capital reached an activity zenith at some point in the last few quarters — but when?

The answer is actually a bit less clear than we anticipated. Leaning on some new data from Crunchbase News, let’s try to figure out when the music really did stop and reality descended.