Investors Warming to Higher Valuations—for Some

Last week, HotelTonight enjoyed something that had started to seem like a faint memory in Silicon Valley: an up round. The hotel booking site raised $37 million at a valuation of $400 million, up from about $300 million. The funding came not long after a few other bigger startups raised money at higher valuations, including Instacart, WeWork, SoFi and Airbnb.

The private tech landscape is starting to thaw—slowly—after a chilly period over the past 18 months. The number of up rounds as a proportion of total fundraisings is up to 73% so far this quarter from 71% a year ago, according to PitchBook, although total fundraisings will likely be down. Overall tech companies raised around $8 billion this quarter, compared to $11 billion a year earlier.