A deck should name the provider behind its market number

The record

PitchBook's report methodologies page, retrieved 16 September 2026, states that recent-quarter deal and exit counts include an added estimate for reporting still to come, with both the original reported figure and the estimated figure shown side by side. Crunchbase's methodology page defines its funding data as covering angel through Series C+ rounds while excluding private equity, secondaries, debt and grants. CB Insights' State of Venture 2024 Report, published 7 January 2025, reports that global funding reached $86.2 billion in the fourth quarter of 2024, with 60% of that total, or $52 billion, coming from mega-rounds of $100 million or more.

What the sources establish

Each page establishes that its own market figure is bounded by a specific, stated rule: a category of deal counted in or left out, a stage range, a currency and a period, and, for PitchBook, a specific reporting-lag adjustment. CB Insights' $86.2 billion is a global figure covering one quarter, concentrated by its own account in a small number of mega-rounds; it is not a market size any single sector or stage should be measured against without adjustment. None of the three sources describes its number as a total addressable market, a sector forecast, or a figure any single company's revenue potential can be benchmarked against directly.

Scope and revision

A number lifted from any one of these pages into a pitch deck carries all of its source's scope and none of it visibly, unless the deck states it. $86.2 billion in Q4 2024 funding is not the same claim as the addressable market for a given company, and CB Insights' own report does not claim otherwise; it is a total of venture dollars invested, weighted heavily by a handful of large rounds in adjacent categories such as AI infrastructure. An investor who has read the same methodology page a founder skipped will recognise the mismatch immediately, and a deck that quotes the figure without its scope invites exactly that scrutiny.

The decision in front of you

This is an editorial checklist for citing a market figure, not investment advice about how large a market should be claimed. Before a number appears on a slide, state its provider, its period, and what it counts in and out, in the same breath as the number.

• Does this figure measure total capital invested, a market size, or a forecast, and does the deck say which?
• Is the period a quarter, a trailing year, or a calendar year, and is that stated next to the number?
• Would removing the largest few deals behind this figure change the story the slide is telling?

A founder does not need to produce their own data to use a market figure well. They need to keep the provider's own scope attached to it when they repeat it.