from Hacker News

Ask HN: How will the tariffs affect investor funding?

by dlivingston on 4/8/25, 6:46 PM with 19 comments

• by toomuchtodo on 4/9/25, 2:06 AM

  IPO window is closed/dead for at least the next 3-6 months. Both Klarna and Circle have paused their upcoming IPOs. Even the corporate bond market is seizing up at the moment. Uncertainty is toxic to long term investment.

  https://www.marketplace.org/story/2025/04/08/why-has-the-cor...

  https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/stock-market-tariffs-trade-... | https://archive.today/iKHbX

• by thomassmith65 on 4/8/25, 10:53 PM

  What kind of startup? Right now it's probably easy to raise money if you're in the business of vehicle repossession, payday loans, dollar stores...

• by smt88 on 4/8/25, 10:41 PM

  Investors hate uncertainty and these tariffs will raise costs for a lot of startups to the point they can't be profitable.

  Investors will likely increase investment in other countries or keep their money liquid for a while to see what happens.

  US tech is effectively dead unless the tariffs go away, and it may still be dead if the go away in a way that feels like it could be temporary.

  Best case scenario is for SCOTUS to rule they're unconstitutional in the very near future.

• by arjunlol on 4/8/25, 10:38 PM

  I think it's early to tell. But generally tariffs = more uncertainty = tighter capital. If a startup raised high before, it might have to do a down round in the future unless growth is real.

• by financetechbro on 4/9/25, 8:32 AM

  VCs that recently raised a fund and are in deploy mode will continue to deploy (assuming no issues with LP base). Funds who are maturing will have a hard time exiting from their investments. Eventually the money will dry out if we can’t get exits flowing again. Potential for M&A activity to pickup as funds look for liquidity, albeit at less than stellar valuations most likely. Long term it’s hard to predict what will happen

• by aussieguy1234 on 4/9/25, 1:44 AM

  Here in Australia, we are now expecting 4 interest rate cuts due to likely global economic turmoil. That's up from zero before the tarriffs.

  My understanding is lower interest rates = more money for VCs and investors. Digital products, which most startups are building, aren't subject to Tariffs, unless you are shipping physical copies which most software startups are not.

  If that is the case, would this mean more money for startups in non-US countries?

• by karim79 on 4/9/25, 2:05 AM

  Depends largely on what you need to grow your company, in terms of the supply chain and whatnot. I suppose there are indirect costs as well, in terms of the stuff you need to buy and how those things have been influenced by these stellar economic choices made by the geniuses that be.

  I would say wait for things to level-out before pursuing capital. Everything has gone to shit for the time being.