Overall funding to VC-backed companies has been on a steady climb over the past five years. From 2011 to 2015 the funding to VC-backed companies globally went from $49B to over $128B, a 162% increase.
Taking a look at the annual trends, VC activity has picked up in recent years, with 2015 hitting a 5-year high in terms of capital invested. 2015 did see a 3% dip in deal count year-over-year, while also seeing a dramatic 44% increase in funding dollars, indicating that the average round amount is increasing.
Quarterly deal and dollar trend
Drilling into the quarterly trends reveals the sharp drop-off in both dollars and deals for Q4’15. The previous 4 quarters saw year-over-year growth in investment dollars, but that trend reversed in the final quarter. Quarter-over-quarter, Q4’15 represented a 30% drop in funding dollars.
In deal terms too, activity was the lowest since Q1’13, dropping 13% compared to the previous quarter.
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