Startup Funding Ends Year At $104.6 Billion Despite Deep Freeze in Q4

This post is written by Villu Arak from Funderbeam, An Estonian provider of startup data-intelligence services.

North America, Asia, and Europe all suffered serious funding drops in Q4 2015, but end year safely in the black. They raised $104.6 billion in 2015, leaving 2014 in the dust.

The mighty aren’t falling. Lest there be any doubt, North America rules the 2015 funding roost with $68.5bn raised for startups headquartered there. The US-dominated region outperformed 2014 by 27% year-on-year, despite a 48% stumble in Q4.

Asia is three laps behind, and messed up its last pit stop with a 64% funding drop in Q4, raising $3.4bn. Yet its startups still laughed all the way to the bank on strong H1 performance, taking home $24.1bn in 2015. That’s a massive 60% rise over 2014.

Europe suffered the least in the last quarter (-38%), and delivered respectable 49% funding growth year-on-year. But for a continent in third place, that isn’t nearly enough to close the gap with Asia. European startups pulled in just $2.1bn in Q4, and $12bn for the year.

Of course, it’s a bit silly to treat startup funding as a regional horse race. Each company raises money on its own merits, and sets up its HQ wherever it makes sense for its business. Is a European startup with VC-demanded headquarters in Redwood City, CA, an American company? Yeah but no but yeah but still..

Nevertheless, regional groupings help illustrate concentrations of funding wealth and investment-worthy tech entrepreneurship. There’s no denying that when placed on a map, Europe’s beautiful blue dot is dwarfed by America’s red giant. And Asia is doing its best to tighten its healthy green squeeze on Europe from the other side.

But that’s just the general view from USS Stating the Obvious. We sliced and diced the data from various angles, go ahead and feast on it below.

For all the statistics – check the infographics here, for Q4 as well as the whole year.


Investments in the fourth quarter of 2015 based on funding type and geographical location. Photo: Funderbeam
The total investments of whole year 2015 based on funding type and geographical location. Photo: Funderbeam

This article written by Villu Arak was published originally on Funderbeam’s blog.