**Short answer:** The dataset covers only five months (January to May 2022), so it can show a short-term direction but not seasonality. Deal count is drifting down and then drops sharply in May. Deal size has no clear direction. **What the data shows** (from the monthly summary query, step-0): - **Deal count:** 115 rounds in January, 96 in February, 98 in March, 95 in April and 42 in May. That is a step down from January, a flat stretch from February to April, and a large fall in May. - **May is probably incomplete, not a real collapse.** The card notes that May has misaligned or blank rows. Only 21 of its 42 rounds have a usable amount, and 0 are marked "Undisclosed". Before treating the drop as real, treat May as a partial month. - **Median round size:** about $5.5M in January, $6M in February, $11M in March, $30M in April and $5.5M in May. This rises through April and then falls back, which looks more like a few large deals in March and April than a lasting trend. - **Total funding:** about $4.10B in January, $3.49B in February and $2.85B in March, falling steadily. April shows about $45.3B and May about $0.31B. I don't trust the April total (see the caveat below). **Caveat on the amounts.** `Amount` is stored as text with inconsistent formats (step-1, April): - Some values use European-style separators, such as "$624.800,000" and "$11.700,000". - Others are bare numbers, such as "$221.5", "$23" and "$485", which probably mean millions. - Some are "Undisclosed" or blank. My parsing likely inflated April's total, so the jump to $45.3B is probably an artifact. The counts, and to a lesser extent the medians, are more reliable than the dollar totals. **Conclusion:** - **Deal volume:** mildly shrinking from January to April, then a sharp fall in May that is likely a data-completeness effect. - **Deal value:** flat to mixed. The March and April rises in median size are not conclusive. - **Seasonality:** can't be assessed with five months of one year. The strongest supportable statement is that deal counts declined from January to May 2022, with the May figure uncertain.