While most of us are spending money on cocktails we finally don’t have to make ourselves, venture capitalists are shelling out cash like they just got a stimulus check. Startups globally raised a record $156 billion last quarter, per a new report from CB Insights.
What’s driving the surge? A low-interest rate environment, the digital transformation spurred by the pandemic, and more private equity and hedge fund participation in startup investing, our friends at Emerging Tech Brew explain.
The juiciest bits…
An army of unicorns. 136 new startups achieved a billion-dollar valuation last quarter alone, stampeding the 128 unicorns created in all of 2020. The number of new unicorns has grown 491% over last year.
Fintech flexing. $1 out of every $5 raised globally last quarter went to the fintech industry, for a total of $33.7 billion. With Stripe and Klarna on its side, fintech boasts two of the most valuable unicorns in the world.
Silicon Valley is the next Silicon Valley. Sorry, Austin, TX, but funding for companies in the OG tech hub jumped 93% from Q2 2020, which gave Silicon Valley its second consecutive $20+ billion quarter. It’s “still by far the largest tech hub,” says CB Insights.
And it’s still Tiger Global’s world. The New York-based “crossover” fund, which invests in both private and public companies, was closing over four deals per week on average in Q1, but in Q2 managed to bump that up to 1.3 deals per day. In all, Tiger locked down 81 deals last quarter.
- Tiger has invested in heavy-hitters including Roblox, Coinbase, Peloton, Discord, Snowflake, and your soul (just kidding, but doesn’t it kind of feel like it might?).
Bottom line: As Joshua Chao, venture capital analyst at PitchBook, told Emerging Tech Brew last week, “For entrepreneurs, this is possibly one of the most founder-friendly periods we’ve seen in several years.”
