Q3’19 Venture Pulse Report - Global trends

Q3’19 saw global VC investment hold steady despite increasing levels of economic and geopolitical uncertainty and a lack of $1 billion+ megadeals during the quarter. A significant number of $100 million+ megadeals across the US, Americas, and Europe helped to buoy results.

While global VC investment is well-off pace to match last year’s record, which included the massive $14 billion raise by Ant Financial, investment is expected to exceed levels seen in all years prior to 2018 by the end of the year. While VC investment in China may have slowed significantly, other regions have seen significant upticks in investment. Despite the significant uncertainty surrounding Brexit in the UK, for example, Europe has already exceeded 2018’s record level of VC investment – with one quarter remaining in the year.

While there continues to be a significant amount of liquidity in the global VC market, it is expected that VC investors will be more cautious when making investments over the next quarter and into 2020, putting greater emphasis on company business models and expectations related to profitability.

Fintech, transportation, mobility, healthtech, and biotech are all expected to be hot areas of VC investment on a global level, with AI continuing to be a critical focus at a technology level. B2B solutions, productivity solutions, and solutions with real world impacts are also expected to grow on the radar of investors.

Global economic and geopolitical uncertainty is expected to remain relatively high over the next few quarters given the rapidly approaching Brexit deadline, no signs of a break in the US-China trade war, and the US presidential election slated for late 2020.