Global startup funding dives, some light for Europe

Global startup funding dived 28.3 percent in 2016 hit by shrinking investments in fintech startups, a funding report of Funderbeam showed on Monday.

Startups around the world raised just $117.2 billion in 2016, compared with $163.4 billion a year earlier.

The two hottest sectors of 2015 – financial and payment startups, which both raised more than $25 billion in 2015 – saw investments roughly halving this year, and the most popular sectors for investors were transport and healthcare.

funderbeam2016_sectors 
On the annual level, all key geographies saw massive drops in investments, but in the fourth quarter investments in Europe rose from the previous quarter. “This could be a very positive sign for Europe-based companies looking to raise funds in 2017,” Funderbeam said in the report.

The total amount of deals dropped even more significantly than the total amount of funding. Globally, the drop was 43 percent — from 14,983 deals in 2015 to 8,485 deals in 2016. The biggest drop was in North America, where the number of rounds shrunk 46 percent.

The total of 8,485 deals is the lowest number since Funderbeam started to record data in 2012.

Despite the global cool-down of funding average deal-sizes went up in all regions. The biggest increase was in Asia, where the average deal-size rose from just over $20 million to more than $30 million – an increase of more than 45 percent. In Europe the deals were on average just 2 percent larger.