Venture capital activity surges in 2015

Despite concerns about global markets, investors are still considering venture capital-backed companies, says a new global report that was published jointly by KPMG International and CB Insights.

In Q3 2015, says the report, $37.6 billion was invested across 1,799 deals. That marks another multi-year high for quarterly, venture capital funding.

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And over the first nine months of 2015, it adds, $98.4 billion was invested into venture capital-backed companies. That’s an 11% jump compared to all of 2014, which was also a record year.

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“It’s been another banner quarter for venture capital investment around the globe,” says Brian Hughes, national co-lead partner at KPMG Venture Capital Practice, and a partner for KPMG in the U.S. Across North American markets, and in regions such as Europe and Asia, “the total amount invested continued to rise.”

Key Q3 highlights

• Q3 funding was driven by the continued strength of deals valued at more than $100 million (there were 68 of these deals in total)
• Asia showed significant funding gains, jumping to $13.5 billion in funding. By comparison, Europe saw $3.5 billion in financing, and North America saw $20.3 billion in the same period.
• The median size of late-stage deals in the quarter globally was $35 million, a substantial increase from the $20 million median observed in Q3 2014.
• But, aggregate deal activity fell to 1,799 deals, the lowest volume of deals since Q2 2013, and substantially lower than the 1,928 deals seen in Q2 2015. The downward trend in deals volume was driven primarily by a slowdown in seed venture capital activity.

Staff

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