This year’s healthy level of global Venture Capital investment showed no signs of slowing down in the third quarter of 2021, recording a record for the third consecutive quarter, with 171.7 billion dollars through 8,682 transactions. High liquidity, increasing participation of less “traditional” VC investors and disinvestment opportunities have contributed to the maintenance of a healthy VC market, according to the Venture Pulse of the third quarter of 2021, the quarterly report issued by KPMG Private Enterprise about VC trends globally and in key regions around the world.
The record of 11 transactions worth more than 1 billion dollars each during the quarter, helped VC investments climb to a new high. Indian Flipkart raised 3.6 billion dollars in the largest transaction of the third quarter, with U.S. Rivian (2.5 billion dollars) and Generate (2 billion dollars) following.Other companies with funding rounds of more than 1 billion dollars include Byju based in India (1.7 billion dollars), Databricks in the U.S. (1.6 billion dollars), Svolt in China (1.58 billion dollars), Articulate in the U.S. (1.5 billion dollars), Devoted Health in the U.S. (1.2 billion dollars), Nubank in Brazil (1.1 billion dollars), Chime in the US (1.1 billion dollars) and GoPuff in the US (1 billion dollars).
More than half of the global VC investments in total were made on the American continent, recording a record funding of 94 billion dollars during the third quarter. The 82.8 billion dollars of this total -also new quarter record- came from the U.S. VC investments in the Asia-Pacific region amounted to 48.1 billion dollars in the best quarter after the second quarter of 2018, but also the second best quarter for VC investments that has been recorded in general. After the record in the second quarter of 2021, VC investment in Europe recorded a slight decline to 27.5 billion dollars, mainly due to the summer slowdown, as many investors left for vacation for the first time since the start of the pandemic.
Global disinvestment activity remained strong – with a value of 292 billion dollars through 780 transactions in the third quarter of 2021. This has helped to boost the total amount of disinvestment since the beginning of the year to over 1 trillion dollars – more than double the previous high of 468 billion dollars (in 2020), with another quarter left to close the year.
VC investments in the American continent hit a record for the third time in a row, with investments of 94 billion dollars through 3,934 transactions. The 82.8 billion idollars of these investments and 3,518 from the transactions came from the U.S.
VC investments in Europe remained strong, with investments of 27.5 billion dollars through 1,910 transactions in the third quarter – lower than the record of 36 billion that occurred in the second quarter of 2021.
The Asia-Pacific region recorded VC investments of 48.1 billion.dollars through 2,616 transactions in the third quarter of 2021 – the second-highest VC investment quarter since the second quarter of 2018.
Global VC corporate investments reached a record high of 85.5 billion in the third quarter of 2021 – boosting annual CVC investments that reached a record high of 230.7 billion with one more quarter left to close the year.
The value of the activity of disinvestment from activities financed by VC funding fell from a record of 399.2 billion dollars in the second quarter of 2021 at 292.4 billion dollars in the third quarter of 2020. The total value exceeded 1 trillion dollars for the first time ever, with the fourth quarter of 2021 not yet complete.
