Venture capital hits record high in U.S. in 2020 despite pandemic Reuters 1/8/2021 By Jane Lanhee Lee
By Jane Lanhee Lee
(Reuters) - Venture capital backed companies in the United States raised nearly $130 billion last year, setting a record despite the COVID-19 pandemic, figures from data firm CB Insight released on Friday show.
While the investment total is up 14% from 2019, the number of deals is down 9% to 6,022. And so-called mega-rounds, deals that are $100 million or higher also hit a record amount and number with $63 billion raised in 318 deals. What we re seeing is a rich get richer phenomenon where successful, high momentum technology companies are vacuuming up most of the financing, CB Insights chief executive Anand Sanwal told Reuters by email.