Unless you’re among a handful of high-flying AI companies, the startup-funding market remains a difficult place.

PitchBook’s analysts took stock of where some of their already-subdued expectations for 2024 stand halfway through the year in a new report. They found that “sticky” inflation, which led the Federal Reserve to pause interest rate drops, put a damper on exits and fundraising, along with high interest rates and geopolitical tensions.

With $20.4 billion in open funds tracked so far this year and some “lags in data collection,” PitchBook now forecasts a total venture capital haul for 2024 of $79.3 billion—with a downside estimate of $58.8 billion and an upside of $92.1 billion. That middle stat would put 2024 slightly below last year’s total of $84.7 billion, and at less than half of the stratospheric highs of 2021 and 2022 ($175 billion and $191 billion, respectively).

“Expectations for the turnaround in the VC market entering 2024 were not especially high,” analysts wrote in the report. “Through the first six months of 2024, inflation continued to be sticky, interest rates remained at the high level they ended 2023 with, and geopolitical events kept a haze on the horizon.”

Keep reading here.—PK

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While Google only began phasing out third-party cookies in January, some people had been freaking out about it long before: 40% of marketers Adobe surveyed in 2022 who said the cookie phaseout would hurt their businesses thought it would cause “significant harm or devastation.”

Several months later, marketers are still trying to adjust to the new ad tech landscape. It’s being reshaped by not only the decrease in cookies, but also by the effects of generative AI and expected higher demand for content, according to a survey of 2,800 marketers Adobe released this week (having recently debuted its own GenAI tools.) While marketers now say they’re less concerned about the cookie phaseout, many say they don’t have the structure in place to adapt, according to Adobe.

“Brands are struggling to build a strong data foundation beyond third-party cookies, and risk hurting their business,” Adobe found.

Keep reading on Marketing Brew.—JS

CFOs should understand by now that cybersecurity is an enterprise risk and not just something for those techies in IT to worry about.

New analysis from Marsh shows that cyberattacks aren’t going away. In fact, 2023 was a banner year for one type of attack, the broker found.

Marsh analyzed the 1,800-plus cyber claims that its US and Canadian clients submitted last year. About a fifth (21%) of clients reported at least one cyber event during 2023, which fell in the range of 16% to 21% over the last five years.

But not everything was business as usual in 2023. According to the report, organizations saw a record number of cyber extortions (282), a 64% bump from 2022. Cyber extortion is a cyberattack that includes a blackmailing component, like when an attacker threatens to release sensitive information if the victim doesn’t pay a ransom demand.

While only a small percentage (17%) of cyber claims included an extortion component, “ransomware remains a top concern for organizations given their increased frequency, sophistication, and potential severity,” according to a Marsh news release. The median ransom demand shot up to $20 million compared with $1.4 million in 2022, and the median payment increased to $6.5 million from $335,000.

While extortion events are up, more companies are clearly over it.

Keep reading on CFO Brew.—AZ

AIs on the prize. Notion AI can now reach beyond your Notion workspace and tap into Slack. What does this mean? Instead of searching through your apps or pinging teammates, Notion AI can find the info you’re looking for ASAP. That’s two incredibly valuable knowledge resources, now all the easier to navigate. Learn why this matters.