The global tech ecosystem witnessed a major slump in startup funding in the third quarter of the year as startups around the world were able to raise $54.7 billion.
This was contained in the Global State of Funding report by international tech startup funding analytics company, CB Insights.
According to the report, the $54.7 billion raised between July and September was a far cry from the $68.1 billion raised by startups around the world in the preceding quarter (Q2, 2024), representing a significant 19.7% decline.
It is also way less than the $62 billion worth of investment attracted in the first quarter of the year, representing an 11.8% decline.
The total global startup funding attracted in the third quarter is also the lowest funding number recorded since 2020, falling below the $54.9 billion recorded in the fourth quarter of 2023 which was the previous lowest.
Not even during the pandemic of 2020 did the global ecosystem witness such a decline as is recently witnessed, with funding figures going from $61.5 billion in the second quarter of 2020 to peak at $97.5 billion in the last quarter of that year.
The number of deals also witnessed a significant decline with just 6,056 deals recorded. This is significantly lower than the 6,736 deals in the preceding quarter and the 7,209 deals in the one before.
Ultimately, the number of deals attracted during the quarter is the lowest number of deals recorded since 2020, way below the 7,201 recorded in the last quarter of last year (Q4, 2023) which happened to be the second lowest.
Of the total startup funding attracted during the quarter, the United States alone got $29.8 billion. This represented an astounding 55.1%of the total global startup funding raised during the quarter. The second highest-performing region is Europe which attracted $11 billion, representing 20.1%of the total.
The next top-performing region is Asia which was able to raise $10.5 billion in startup funding. This figure represents 19.2% of the total funding raised around the world during the quarter.
Latin America comes next with startups in South America raising approximately $800 million in the quarter under review, representing 1.46% of the total.
Oceania comprising Australia and New Zealand raised just $500 million according to the report, representing 0.9 per cent of the total raised.
According to the report, startups in Africa raised only $300 million during the quarter, representing 0.54 per cent. Other regions are credited with attracting $94 million.
While the Q3 2024 figures might have been the lowest both in total investment and deals involved, it certainly did a bit better in the area of deal size.
With 98 deals worth $100 million and above, the quarter did better than Q4, 2023 which was only able to attract 85 deals worth over $100 million.
Similarly, in the value of deals worth at least $100 million, the quarter under review was able to garner investments worth $21.5 billion across those 98 deals. This is far above the $18.9 billion attracted across the 85 deals in Q4, 2023, and tied with Q2 of the same year, even though that quarter needed 108 deals to achieve the same. So, in all, the numbers weren’t as bad in deal sizes.
Despite this, 2024 is well on track to be the slowest global startup funding year since 2020 as the total amount of funding year-to-date stands at $184.8 billion.
This is $76.6 billion less than the total $261.4 billion raised throughout 2023 which has emerged as the slowest year since 2020. In a year that has whose highest quarterly funding size is $68.1 billion, it is highly unlikely that the last quarter would attract $76.6 billion in global tech startup funding.
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