What Goes Up

General

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Stating the Obvious about the Increase

• 2021 was a crazy year for the VC market.
• Top-line numbers:
  • CB Insights reports that venture investment reached $621 billion in 2021, up 111% from 2020 levels.
  • Crunchbase News’ data points in a similar direction, finding $643 billion worth of global venture investment last year, up 92% year on year.
• Superbly Supergiant: CB Insights finds there were 1,556 VC rounds of $100M or more, up 147% from 2020's all-time high of 630.
• Unicorn Watch: Crunchbase News pegged the rate of new unicorn creation at "more than ten each week" in 2021. CB Insights says there are now 959 unicorns as of the end of Q4 2021, up 69% from the 569 tallied at the end of Q4 2020.
• Most active investors include: Tiger Global Management, SoftBank Investment Advisors, Andreessen Horowitz, and Insight Ventures

Some Reading

• Data show 2021 was a bonkers, record-setting year for venture capital (Alex Wilhelm and Anna Heim, for TechCrunch)
• Global Venture Funding And Unicorn Creation In 2021 Shattered All Records (Gene Teare, for Crunchbase News)
• Venture Capital 2021 Recap–A Record Breaking Year (Haley Bryan, for FactSet)
• Six charts that show 2021's record year for US venture capital (Priyamvada Mathur for PitchBook)

About The Co-Hosts

• Jason D. Rowley is a researcher who has previously worked with Uzabase, Golden.com, Crunchbase News and others. He volunteers with startup outreach for the open-source community and sends occasional newsletters from Rowley.Report.
• Graham C. Peck is a Venture Partner with Cultivation Capital and additionally helps companies build technology development teams as a partner of FYC Labs and other technology development organizations.