The VC data bible is out
Our Q2 2021 Venture Report is out and it's 190 pages of data on global venture + Asia, LatAm, Europe and US trends
cbinsights.com/research/repor…
Some key takeaways 👇
2/ 136 new unicorns
in 1 quarter!!!
An absolutely gigantic quarter for unicorn births
Aren't unicorns supposed to be rare?
Quick - someone come up with a new name
3/ $156.2B invested in the quarter
The biggest quarter for VC in the history of the universe
Yes - let the bubble takes begin
BTW, I think all those takes are wrong
4/ Of course, with global venture increasing, the USA was also up
The first half of the year for the US was a record as well
5/ Valuation inflation?
Maybe
But it's competitive out there
The median Series A deal valuation in 2021 sits at $42M
6/ There is no hotter sector than FinTech
$30B invested into fintech in the quarter
or 1 of every $5 venture dollars
wild
7/ There were 390 venture rounds of $100 million+ in Q2
The "private IPO" is pretty common these days
8/ The one big market that saw a funding decline was China which dropped 18% from its all time high
But remember, this is an 18% drop from an all-time high
Tons of innovation and activity still coming out of China
And it will continue to
9/ 1.26 deals per working day!!
Yes - that is how fast Tiger Global is making investments
Easily led the pack for most active investor in Q2
10/ The exit environment was also very healthy in Q2 with 2893 exits (M&A and IPOs)
Lots of financial buyers of tech companies + strategics and a healthy SPAC/IPO environment
Money is flowing everywhere
While the disruption of Silicon Valley talk is always overblown, there is a gargantuan amount of innovation happening everywhere
12/ Lots of rankings and league tables about funding, valuations, exits
Here's the top 10 venture exits of Q2
13/ Here's a look at the largest fintech financings in the quarter
Notice: all outside the USA
14/ Of course, AI has had a record setting half year with $31B in funding in H1 2021
15/ Here's the 5 largest AI deals in the quarter
Diverse array of use cases and geos
16/ Interestingly, as investors all unicorn hunting, the share of deals to the early stage fell to a 5 year low
Seed investing by the big dogs of venture has generally declined dramatically
17/ The @rabois Effect in Miami has yet to show up in the numbers with $711M invested in Miami cos
For comparison's sake, sunny Chicago saw ~$2B invested in the quarter
18/ India's venture ecosystem is booming
$6.3B invested in 336 deals
Both $ and deals at a record
19/ Europe also saw $ and deal records
Interestingly, early-stage deals in Europe were 69% of total deals
Suggests good things for the future of the European venture ecosystem
20/ Here's a look at the biggest financing deals in the UK, Germany and France
21/ The region with the biggest pop in venture funding was LatAm
$7.2B invested is so much larger than any prior quarter
22/ Within LatAm, Mexico and Brazil did very well
Here's the biggest deals in Mexico
23/ So in summary, Q2 was a gargantuan quarter
Get the full 190 page report here for free
cbinsights.com/research/repor…
Happy reading
24/ I'm seeing lots of takes that this is like 1999 (the infamous dot com bubble)
This is a quick attention-grabbing take which is likely great for clicks but belies a lack of understanding of 1999 vs now
First, yes there are some things that seem similar
Like what?
25/ Similarities
* lots of $ piling into startups
* everyone (not just VCs) wanted a piece of tech
* tech was top of my mind for media
* some 'silly' companies were getting funded at lofty valuations
26/ Differences
* a lot more enterprise tech/SaaS today vs heavy consumer. It's not eyeball monetization and other nonsense. It's ARR, churn, etc.
* the $ today are going to building product and getting to product-market fit and not racks of servers, colocation facilities, etc
27/ More differences
* The money is increasingly going to perceived winners vs speculative early stage cos. Look at the decline in early-stage in this quarter. It's at a 5 year low.
28/ 5% of total rounds are mega-rounds ($100M+) but they account for 58% of $
So when folks do these facile comparisons of 1999 $ to 2021 $, it's like comparing an apple to a lawn mower
29/ Venture is more global than ever
It's also a lot less incestuous than '99 when recycling of investor $ among ad tech, ecommerce, hosting cos was the norm
One toppled and we watched the dominoes fall
There was no Asia, LatAm, Europe VC scene then. Now they're huge!
30/ Finally, this doesn't mean that there aren't excesses in venture today
Price discipline gone ✔️
Some silly ideas getting $ ✔️
New investor (family offices, HFs/MFs, corps) may be taken for a ride ✔️
All good critiques but let's pls stop with the "It's like 1999" nonsense
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