Would be nice to have data available on this.

If the company is not public, there are no dividends. Crazy that stuff like this needs to be explained on a tech site.

This is not strictly true. A company can pay dividends if it's profitable at any point in time. Whether it's publicly traded doesn't matter. Whether it's a good idea or not is another question.

Here in Canada private companies can and do pay dividends to their shareholders.

Well exactly.

All of this depends on the company being profitable, which young startups typically aren't and probably shouldn't be.

I know, but having data on it helps. I am curious how many of these funded companies actually generate profits for their founders and how soon. It may be that despite large investments returns are slim, meaning many such startups are a waste of time.