Venture funding in 2021 broke records across the board according to new data from Crunchbase.

The data revealed that global VC funding reached $643bn last year, up from $335bn in 2020. This represents a 92pc growth year-on-year. Investment over the past decade has increased ten-fold.

In 2012, less than $59bn in venture capital was invested globally. Since 2018, however, global funding has grown five times larger than it was in 2012.

Breaking down the numbers from 2021, $29.4bn went into seed funding, $201bn was invested in early stage funding, and $413bn in late stage funding.

The financial services sector, unicorn start-ups, Latin America-based start-ups and tech start-ups were the main beneficiaries last year with record amounts of venture capital funding injected into all.

In 2021, the financial services sector experienced the most year-over-year growth in VC funding, followed by health care, e-commerce and transportation.

Close to $19.6bn was invested in Latin America’s start-ups, marking the region out as the fastest growing. While vast sums of capital were invested in start-ups in Europe ($116bn) and the US ($330bn) last year, Latin America’s funding increased by 300pc. Asia experienced the least amount of year over year growth at only 50pc. Its funding figure for 2021 was $165bn.

There was 586 new unicorn entrants on Crunchbase’s Unicorn Board, up from 167 in 2020. There is now more than 1,000 unicorns on the board, collectively valued at $3.8 trn.

Late-stage and tech growth companies received the most funding last year, consistent with other years. Crunchbase data showed that 1,000 more start-ups raised Series C and later funds last year than in 2020. Around two thirds of all dollars invested went into more than 3,000 unique companies globally at Series C or later.

Around $201bn was invested in 8,000 early-stage companies last year, compared to $101bn in 2020.

While data from companies at the seed stage is not as accurate, Crunchbase found that seed funding grew 56pc year over year and totalled $29.4 bn in 2021.

Big companies also experienced boosts in their value in 2021. Apple added $1trn to its value last year, while Alphabet and Amazon also added almost $1trn to their valuations.

Don’t miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic’s digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.

The post Venture funding in 2021 reached new heights – Crunchbase data appeared first on Silicon Republic.