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January is good for two things: sticking with New Year’s resolutions and digesting year-in-review reports. We’re already behind on the former, so let’s focus on the latter.
PwC and CB Insights just released their latest report on VC funding. The US highlights:
- Funding: 2020 was the biggest-ever funding year, with VCs disbursing $130 billion. The previous record was $122 billion in 2018.
- Unicorns: 28 startups grew unicorn horns in Q4 2020 alone. For context, the US only has 225 total unicorns (startups valued north of $1 billion).
- Megadeals: We saw more $100+ million deals than ever last year—318 versus 220 in 2019.
- Miami: Funding went up 685% quarter over quarter in Q4 and 72% year over year 👀.
And for the first time, “emerging areas” attracted the majority of US funding in 2020. The top three are familiar faces: AI, fintech, and digital health. Industry experts told us to expect digital health to captivate VC hearts and minds in 2021 as well.
Bottom line: Like public market investors, VCs were more than comfortable backing tech companies through the peaks and valleys of 2020.