2020 was an unfortunate year since the pandemic unhinged the global economy. Many industries rose and fell at the same time. We went through harsh lockdowns, isolations, and social distancing norms. New startups took birth while some could not stand the heat. There have been reports about the venture capital funding increasing or falling adversely in the Covid times last year. 

However, this year does not seem to be that harsh on the global venture capitalists market. Crunchbase recently published a report on the global venture funding hitting record-surges in the first quarter of 2021. According to Crunchbase data, the global venture investments reached USD125 billion and it was the first single quarter that reached above USD100 billion. 

The report mentions the fast pace at which new unicorns popped up, an average of two unicorns per working day. Along with this, the S&P 500 is also at an all-time high with strong acquisitions markets. Seed stage funding saw a slight dip in the first quarter and is in a complex situation due to data lags and falling counts as suggested by the report. Crunchbase data found seed funding stable enough with USD4.1 billion investment and early-stage funding witnessed a surge with USD35.5 billion funding, which accounts for a 45% quarter-on-quarter and a 63% year-on-year increase. 

Late-stage funding also had a visible growth and dominated in the first quarter of 2021 and as the report mentions, 80 global venture-backed companies went public. 

Another Crunchbase report suggests that industries like delivery, robotics, logistics, automotive, fintech, and cloud computing grew immensely in January 2021. 

Bloomberg quotes CB Insights data in its article, which says that maximum venture-backed funding was poured into cryptocurrency companies and about 129 startups focused on blockchain raised USD2.6 billion in the first quarter. 

Here is the list of some companies that raised considerably high funding in the first quarter of venture capitalist investments in different stages.

  • Databricks: This AI and data analytics platform secured USD1 billion in its latest series G funding round. Databricks is built on a Lakehouse Architecture and provides a unique integrated platform for data management and analytics. 
  • Zomato: The Gurgaon-based food delivery application raised almost USD250 million in recent funding in the first half of this year. Zomato had seen significant growth during the last few years and the pandemic had increased its possibilities to grow further since people largely shifted to digital platforms. 
  • SpaceX: Founded by Elon Musk, the company is an aerospace manufacturer and is aimed at revolutionizing space transportation. SpaceX raised USD850 million in a venture equity funding round earlier this year. 
  • UiPath: In a series F equity funding, the company raised USD750 million. UiPath founded in 2005 provides end-to-end automation and enables enterprises to digitally transform themselves by leveraging cutting-edge technologies like AI, RPA, Cloud, machine learning, and process mining. 
  • Robinhood: A stock brokerage company founded in 2013, Robinhood raised USD2.4 billion in recent venture-backed funding. The platform offers commission-free trading, stock trading and investing cryptocurrency trading, and more.