2021 – record breaking year
In 2021, the annual turnover and volume of global venture capital reached the highest in history. The level of venture capital in the United States, Canada, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Germany, Israel, northern Europe, Ireland, India and other countries and regions has reached a new high, which can be seen from the healthy and stable global venture capital environment. Corporate venture capital also reached a new high in the quarter, more than one-third higher than the historical record in 2018.
With the expansion of the group involved in venture capital (including more and more non-traditional investors), the total amount of global venture capital financing is only slightly lower than that in 2019, approaching a record high. From the exit end, both the total amount of venture capital exit and the total amount of venture capital exit broke the record, of which the total amount of venture capital is almost three times the historical record.
Unicorn is the main force of the surge in venture capital
In 2021, unicorn will continue to account for a large proportion of global venture capital; In the fourth quarter, thrasio (N2 & Express) and thrasit (N2 & Express) completed more than US $1.3 billion, including more than US $2.5 billion. The trading volume and total financing of venture capital of Unicorn company have more than doubled year-on-year.
In the fourth quarter of 2021, unicorn companies continued to grow explosively. At present, there are 126 Unicorn companies in the world. In this quarter, new Unicorn companies were also born in a considerable number of markets where venture capital is not yet mature, including Vietnam (sky Mavis, Momo), Brazil (cargox, olist), Mexico (Clara, merama), Indonesia (kopi kenangan, Ajaib) and Philippines (mynt). It is not difficult to see that the global venture capital market is increasingly moving towards diversification; At the same time, the scale of start-ups attracting investment in all regions of the world is also expanding.
In many parts of the world, entering the unicorn row is still a major milestone for the company’s development, but for the U.S. market, due to the surge of Unicorn companies (76 were born in the fourth quarter of 2021 alone), reaching the unicorn stage seems to be less exciting.
Hot areas remain the key to the surge in investment
In the fourth quarter of 2021, global venture capital extended to all walks of life, including financial technology, medical and biotechnology, B2B services, clean technology, mobile, automotive technology, network security, takeout distribution and other fields. Globally, some mature investment fields began to feel the momentum wave of integration. For example, in the fourth quarter of 2021, doordash of the United States announced that it planned to acquire wolt, a European food delivery company, for nearly $8 billion. The transaction is expected to be completed within 2022
The importance of ESG continues to rise
In the fourth quarter of 2021, ESG matters continued the upward momentum of the previous quarter, and its importance continued to rise, partly due to the convening of the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference (cop26). Over the past year, as consumers continue to require enterprises with business contacts to take action, venture capitalists pay more attention to the evaluation of various ESG indicators when making investment decisions, and the significance of ESG report for listing has become more and more significant. Enterprises continue to be under pressure, and great changes have taken place in the focus of ESG.
The scope of ESG special venture capital has also changed, and investors pay more and more attention to net zero or low emission technology, food and agricultural technology and alternative energy in all walks of life. From the perspective of venture investors, a major problem facing ESG is that ESG action has not yet established a unified evaluation standard; Looking forward to 2022, it may increase investment in ESG solutions and their evaluation standards, and help enterprises and investors track, evaluate and report ESG action results.
