The fourth quarter 2020 was as challenging as you imagined, with late-stage startups hitting new valuation thresholds at a record pace and total venture capital financing in the US posted its second best result of all time.
This is according to data released recently by CB Insights, which complements our look at the 2020 venture capital year in America yesterday.
At the time, we noticed that American startups raised an average of $ 428 million every day last year, a sum that helps illustrate how quickly private markets moved during the odd period.
The Exchange explores startups, markets and money. Read it every morning on Extra Crunch or get The Exchange newsletter every Saturday.But a look at the aggregate results for the world's largest VC market only provides part of the picture. We need to narrow our focus and look deeper into the most important categories to understand As the US venture capital market managed to record its most important year in terms of dollars invested, despite seeing the volume of deals slide for the second consecutive year.
This morning we collect the data to understand better.
First, we want to see how unicorns performed in the fourth quarter of 2020. This column noted at the end of December that it appeared that unicorn creation was rapid in the quarter; how did he resist?
And then we'll take a look at PitchBook data regarding the fintech sector, a huge recipient of time, attention, and venture capital money.
Fintech's 2020 is a good prospect to see both the year and its final wild quarter. So this morning, as America itself resets itself, let's take a moment to understand last year just a little bit better as we step into this new one.
Unicorns
One of the most curious things about the unicorn era is the rising bet it represents. I've written about this in the past, so I'll be brief: Almost every quarter, the number of unicorns - private companies worth $ 1 billion or more - increases.
The private market is capable of creating more unicorns than it has historically been able to get out of.
Some of these companies go out, sometimes as a group. But, quarter after quarter, the number of unexplored unicorns increases. This means that the bet on future liquidity expected by venture capitalists and other private investors continues to rise.