Lucid Motors, Zoox, Uber score most funding in 3rd quarter
Sixteen U.S. firms see valuations rise to $1 billion or more
The number of venture capital deals worldwide fell for the first time in about six years in the third quarter, but funding to U.S. companies rose 17 percent to $28 billion, and mega funding rounds reached record levels.
U.S. startups raised six rounds worth $500 million or more and 55 rounds worth $100 million or more, the most of any quarter on record, according to the MoneyTree Report released by PricewaterhouseCoopers and CB Insights on Tuesday.
Sixteen U.S. companies became unicorns, or saw their valuations rise to $1 billion or more. They included San Mateo-based bike- and scooter-sharing service startup Lime and San Francisco-based software-development company GitLab. There are now 119 private companies worldwide that are valued at $1 billion or more, which is a record.
San Francisco-based startups again led in amount raised, receiving $8 billion in investments, a 35 percent increase from the second quarter. Deal activity fell 20 percent to 229 transactions. Funding to Silicon Valley startups rose 24 percent from the previous quarter, reaching $4.8 billion, while deal activity fell 28 percent.
Investments in auto and real estate technology rose, with some Bay Areabased companies among the top recipients.
Auto-tech funding surged to $1.9 billion from just $56 million the previous quarter. Lucid Motors, an electric-car maker in Newark, scooped up the bulk of that total, scoring a $1 billion investment from the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia. Lucid’s funding round
tied New York-based WeWork for the largest funding deal in the quarter. A $500 million round went to Menlo Park-based Zoox, an autonomous-driving startup, from investors that included Lux Capital and Blackbird Ventures.
Investment in real estate tech startups increased to $1.2 billion, up from $905 million in the second quarter. Opendoor, a San Francisco-based online real estate marketplace, led the way, raising $400 million from SoftBank.
As of the third quarter, the top five startups by valuation again had Uber at No. 1. The San Francisco ride-hailing company received a $500 million investment from Toyota in the third quarter and is now valued at $72 billion. It is followed by Airbnb ($29 billion), SpaceX ($22 billion), Palantir Technologies ($20 billion), Stripe ($20 billion) and WeWork ($20 billion).