Startup Funding Touches New Records Amid Pandemic
Megarounds for companies like SpaceX and Epic Games helped drive the surge.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from launch complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on Nov. 15, 2020.
Photographer: Gregg Newton/AFP/Getty Images
What began as a desperate year for startups, characterized by mass layoffs as the pandemic took hold, has turned into a record venture capital funding haul.
Despite the economic tumult wrought by the coronavirus, startup investing in the U.S. reached a record high of $130 billion in 2020, according to a new Money Tree report from PricewaterhouseCoopers/CB Insights. Companies like Instacart Inc. and Stripe Inc. helped drive the surge by raising hundreds of millions apiece, even though the total number of funding rounds was lower than in 2019. The year also saw an uptick in funding for several cities outside the Bay Area, long the center of the startup universe.