At the end of each year, we reflect on the current state of the venture market in technology. We are sharing it with our broader community in the hope that someone will find it informative, interesting or at least entertaining.
Polkadot JAM Slides - Token2049 - By Dr. Gavin Wood
F-Prime Capital State of Technology Venture Capital - 2021
1. The State of Technology Venture Capital
December 2021
2. 2
The state of technology venture capital
It’s an extraordinary time in the world of technology…
• 2021 has been a historic year in venture capital, with record-shattering levels of technology
investments ($129B year-to-date) and exit volume ($467B year-to-date)
• Software continues to ‘eat the world’ and transform industry verticals, while fintech is no longer seen as
only a distinct vertical but rather a horizontal embedded layer – with the trend of ‘every company
becoming a fintech company’
• VC funding rounds have grown across the board, the number of unicorns has skyrocketed, and IPO
prices have increased dramatically; the exit industry is structurally larger today than a decade earlier,
and successful exits will spur technology innovation
… and the venture capital landscape is shifting accordingly
• Investment dollars are shifting to new geographies outside of the west coast, to new and rapidly-
growing verticals (e.g., crypto), and to verticals once considered ‘niche’ (e.g., fintech)
• There is more competition for early-stage deals, evidenced by hastened duration of investment
diligence (‘invest now, diligence later’), increasing focus of large VC firms on seed funds that are
broadly insensitive to valuations, and movement of later stage funds to earlier stage deals
• We see a barbell segmentation of VC, with large multi-stage funds on one end and the atomization of
early-stage VC with super angels powered by SPVs
3. North America VC exits by type Top technology IPOs of 2021
Company Category Date Market cap at IPO ($B)
Coinbase Fintech Q2 $65.4
Roblox Consumer Q1 $38.3
Robinhood Fintech Q3 $29.1
UiPath Enterprise Q2 $35.8
Toast Fintech Q3 $31.2
Source: PitchBook, team analysis
Note: Q4 2021 figures are extrapolations of YTD count and investments to full-year (as of 09/30/2021)
3
We have near record levels of IPO and M&A exits of venture-backed companies
18 32 27 14
34 39
18
19
21
53
27 40
37
52
52
76
90
502
627
666
625
784
755
732
797
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
500
550
600
121
133
2014
2012 2020
401
530
2011
101
2013 2015
8
79
41
2016
701
2017 2018
168
2019
378
209
2021
Q3
36
53 48
71
220
90
467
Deal count
IPO M&A
Exit value ($B) Deal count (#)
Announced: Weave, Expensify, UserTesting, D2L, NerdWallet
Top technology M&A of 2021 (excluding SPACs)
Company Date Deal size ($B)
Auth0 (Okta) Q2 $5.7
Divvy (Bill.com) Q2 $2.3
Turbonomic (IBM) Q2 $1.8
Stack Overflow (Prosus) Q3 $1.8
Drizly (Uber) Q1 $1.1
Announced: Nuance, Pathwire, Tapas, Levelset, MineralTree
4. 4
Newly public tech companies have in turn become active acquirers
2
5
8
20
0
5
10
15
20
Q1 2020 Q1 2021
Q4 2020 Q2 2021
Q2 2020 Q3 2020 Q3 2021
0 0 0
Source: PitchBook, team analysis
Number of acquisitions completed by technology companies that IPO’d 2020 – 2021
# of acquisitions
Largest acquisition of quarter $23M $25M $286M $320M
Acquirer
Acquired
x2
x2
x3
x2
x2
x2
x2
5. 5
10-15 “unicorns” drive nearly 50% of exit value in tech M&A, but the number of
exits greater than $100M has also increased
Source: PitchBook, team analysis
Note: PitchBook reports on deals of unknown size which are not shown here, but are included on previous M&A activity slide
Breakdown of tech M&A activity by size1
70%
17%
26%
48%
9%
26%
2%
2%
Deal count (#) Exit value
($M)
141 $17,902
0 - 99M 500M - 999M
100M - 499M 1B+
53%
4%
34%
45%
7%
17%
6%
34%
Deal count (#) Exit value
($M)
$84,997
214
58%
7%
31%
26%
7%
19%
4%
47%
$39,514
Deal count (#) Exit value
($M)
172
58%
6%
30%
29%
5%
14%
7%
50%
$72,804
Deal count (#) Exit value
($M)
185
2011 2016 2020 2021 Q3
6. North America VC investments in technology North America VC investments in Fintech
Source: PitchBook, team analysis
Note: Q4 2021 figures are extrapolations of YTD count and investments to full-year (as of 09/30/2021)
6
Tech venture capital deployment has steadily increased during its 10-year bull
run and has already broken historic records by the end of Q3 2021
18.1 16.4
21.7
35.6
42.7 44.1 40.3
66.0 66.6
78.3
7,740
5,499
5,839
5,664
5,948
6,341
6,609
5,805
0
1,000
2,000
3,000
4,000
5,000
6,000
7,000
8,000
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
2014
2,736
2020
2011
3,591
2015
2012
4,637
2013 2018
2016 2017 2019
6,292
129.5
172.6
2021
Q3
Deal count
2021 run-rate estimate
Capital invested ($B)
2021 run-rate estimate
Higher technology investment in 2021 is the result of larger
median deal size driven by more mega rounds
1.3 1.6 1.9
4.2
7.3 5.7 6.7
12.6 14.0
18.0
1,779
197
259
372
537
605 624
1,046
1,097
0
500
1,000
1,500
2,000
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
2015
2011 2013
2012 2014 2016 2017 2018
1,334
2019
1,069
2020
38.4
2021
Q3
51.2
763
Deal count
2021 run-rate estimate
Capital invested ($B)
2021 run-rate estimate
Fintech investments as a proportion of tech investments has
risen from 7% in 2011 to 30% in 2021
Investments ($B) Investments (#) Investments ($B) Investments (#)
7. Breakdown of tech investment $ by stage Breakdown of tech investment count by stage
Source: PitchBook, team analysis
7
Nearly 2/3 of investment dollars went to late-stage companies in 2021 YTD
Seed – Series B
% of
total
48% 56% 54% 42% 42% 37% 49% 42% 43% 44% 36%
4%
7% 7% 5% 6% 7% 9% 9% 8% 8%
5%
0%
100%
2021
Q3
16%
20%
24%
14%
20%
2011
43%
30%
21%
23%
26%
17%
15%
26%
2012
16%
23%
24%
17%
18%
2013
28%
16%
21%
17%
41%
2014
19%
22%
16%
16%
41%
2015
15%
15%
19%
2016 2017
18%
19%
31%
17%
41%
43%
2018
46%
2019
19%
18%
16%
39%
2020
14%
17%
Seed Series A Series B Series C Series D+ Other
8%
7% 6% 6% 6% 7% 6% 5% 6% 5%
7%
8% 6% 6% 7% 6% 6% 5% 6% 6% 5%
7%
0%
100%
35%
32%
16%
13%
45% 45%
28%
2017
2012
50% 50%
25%
12%
12%
2020
2013
48%
26% 27%
12%
2014
25%
22%
2015
14%
12%
49%
12%
55%
13%
50%
2016
25%
2011
24%
12%
2018
54%
51%
2019
11%
24%
2021
Q3
23%
Seed Series C
Series A Series B Series D+ Other
Seed – Series B
% of
total
83% 87% 87% 86% 87% 87% 88% 88% 88% 88% 83%
8. Median tech deal size by stage Median pre-money valuation by stage
Source: PitchBook, team analysis
8
Deal size and valuation have risen at all stages with a clear inflection in just the
last couple quarters
3.0
12.2
30.0
60.0
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
55
60
2016 2017
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2018 2019 2020 2021
Q3
Seed Series A Series B Series C
YoY increase
vs. 2020
Deal size ($M)
YoY increase
vs. 2020
Deal size ($M)
40%
20%
27%
39%
86%
63%
51%
29%
9.0
39.0
130.0
400.0
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
2016
2011 2015 2018 2021
Q3
2012 2013 2017
2014 2019 2020
Seed Series B
Series A Series C
9. 9
Venture dollars still concentrate on the West Coast though more investment $s
are flowing back to the East Coast
16% 17% 18% 16%
19% 18%
23%
19% 20% 19%
24%
59%
61% 57% 63%
64%
62% 56% 61% 57% 60%
56%
6%
5%
4%
3%
4%
4%
4% 3% 5% 5% 6%
4%
4%
6%
5%
4%
4% 5% 7% 5%
7% 5%
4%
6%
5%
8%
3% 6%
4%
5%
5%
3% 3%
7%
3%
4%
3% 3% 3%
4%
3%
4%
4% 3%
5% 3%
7%
2%
2% 2%
4%
2%
3%
2%
2%
1%
1%
1%
1%
1%
1%
1%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
2011 2013
2012
1%
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2020
2019 2021 Q3
Great Lakes
Midwest
Southeast
South
Mountain
Mid Atlantic (excl. NY)
West Coast
New England + NY
Source: PitchBook, team analysis
Breakdown of VC investments in technology by region ($ invested)
10. Source: PitchBook, team analysis
Note: ‘fund’ refers to individual investment vehicle raised by VC firm and closed by year-of date; Q4 2021 figures are extrapolations of YTD count and investments
to full-year (as of 09/30/2021)
10
The volume of tech-focused VC fundraising continues to increase, though
these dollars are spread across a smaller number of funds
Volume ($B)
22.8
27.2
21.6
39.5 41.3
46.0
38.6
82.8
52.0
74.2
69.8
433
165
260
277
398
449
492 490
603
561
512
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
500
550
600
650
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
220
2014
93.1
2018
2015
2012
2011 2013 2019
2016 2017 2020
325
2021 Q3
Fund count Capital raised ($B) 2021 run-rate estimate 2021 run-rate estimate
Funds (#)
Median fund size has increased over the last decade, from $45.9M in 2011 to $53.3M in Q3 of 2021
North America technology VC fundraising
11. 11
Our global platform
Fidelity’s venture capital
funds span four continents
• 50 year history of venture and
growth investing
• Supporting exceptional
entrepreneurs with aspiration
for greatness anywhere
in the world
12. 12
F-Prime Capital’s Tech Team
Shervin Ghaemmaghami
Operating Partner
Ben Gorman
Principal
John Lin
Principal
Sarah Lamont
Associate
Abdul Abdirahman
Senior Associate
David Jegen
Managing Partner
Renée Anderson
VP Finance
Amrit Ramesh
Data Scientist
Gaurav Tuli
Partner
Sanjay Aggarwal
Venture Partner
Betsy Mulé
Associate
Rachel Feely-Kohl
Community Director