Despite prevailing economic uncertainties, global venture capital (VC) funding remained strong in the third quarter, according to a new report from GlobalData.
North America attracted the majority of global VC funding, accounting for 48.5% of global VC investment volume (up 61.4% from Q3 2018) and 52.4% of its value (up 21.3% from Q3 2018).
While there were no billion-dollar deals, the U.S. had several deals worth at least $100 million (all figures U.S. dollars), including $785 million raised by JUUL Labs, $400 million raised by Knotel and $370 million raised by Urban Compass.
Europe had the strongest year-over-year growth in VC investment value (80.9%) and the second highest growth in deal volume (65.9%). Deal volume surged in Central and South America by 179.2% year over year.
VC funding activity remained relatively weak in Asia-Pacific. The region reported an increase in the number of VC investments, accounting for 29.7% of the global investment volume, but saw a year-over-year 28.7% decrease in investment value, attributable to a $5 billion decrease in investment value in China.
“Economic slowdown and ongoing trade war with the U.S. caused VC investors to be cautious while committing large investments in China,” Aurojyoti Bose, lead analyst at GlobalData, said in a statement. “As economic and geopolitical uncertainty, trade war among different countries and uncertainty around Brexit are unlikely to abate soon, VC investors will continue to remain cautious while making investments over the next few quarters.”