RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Global venture capital investment was US$621 billion during 2021, up 111% from US$294 billion the previous year, and translated into 34,647 deals closed, according to data from business analytics platform CB Insights.
Of the money invested, US$311 billion corresponds to the US, US$176 billion to Asia, and US$93 billion to Europe. In Latin America, investment was approximately US$20 billion, almost four times the previous year’s figure.
The number of unicorns -firms valued at more than US$1 billion- would have increased to 959, an increase of 69% concerning the 2020 measurement. It means that, during 2021, 517 such firms were born, more than two for every business day of the year.
The largest of these continues to be ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, with a valuation of US$140 billion, followed by the American SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk, and Stripe, a financial services company, whose values revolve around US$100 billion.
The sector with the most investments continues to be the financial sector. Around US$1 out of every US$5 is invested in fintech. In total, US$131 billion were invested in these companies, which translates into a total of 4,969 closed financings.
Other areas that were protagonists during 2021 were retail tech, which received US$109 billion, and health-related ventures, in which US$57 billion were invested.
In Latin America, CB Insights recorded 952 financings closed.
The companies that closed the largest financing rounds are all Brazilian. The “social commerce” app Facily scored with two of the five most considerable capital raises. It is followed by the logistics company CargoX and the e-commerce platform Olist.
In Central America, FTX, a Bahamas-based cryptocurrency exchange platform, also stands out, which after a new round of US$421 million would have been valued at US$25 billion.
The funds that invested the most in the region were Kazkek Ventures from Argentina and Monsahees from Brazil, followed by SkyVision Capital, a company headquartered in the Virgin Islands.