Global Investments in Tech Startups Top $293 Billion in 2019

As 2019 draws to a close, we look back at 2019 and review the total investments in technology startups to see how it stacks up with previous year. in 2019, the total global funding in tech startup dipped by 22 percent to $293 billion from $375 billion in 2018, with a 27 percent drop in deals, according to a study released by research firm HexGn. In 2018, the U.S. venture industry invested $130.9 billion in technology startups across 8,948 deals.

As part of the report, the team at HeGn conducted a study of the funding trends in the global startup ecosystem and analyzed over 60,000 deals and one million data points. According to the study, Health & Medtech clocked the highest number of transactions, while Fintech scored in terms of numbers in 2019.

In North America, funding came down to $154 billion from $165 billion in 2018, with a 31 percent drop in deals. However, If there ever was a time in recent years that the US moved far ahead of others, it is 2019. The US attracted more startup funding than the next 30 countries combined, combing $100 billion more startup funding than second-placed China. San Francisco Bay Area, on its own, drew 18 percent of the global startup funding.

Asia bore the brunt with investments shrinking 47 percent to $83 billion from $157 billion last year, and the deals went down by 27 percent, primarily due to China startup funding crashing from $117 billion to just $51 billion in 2019, a drop of 56 percent. However, India bucked the Asian mayhem, with investments surging to $14 billion, up 18 percent in 2019.

Despite being in the news for ‘Brexit,’ declining auto sales and banking sector woes, Europe startup funding held steady. Investments went up by eight percent from $43 billion to $47 billion in 2019, with the number of deals dropping by 20 percent, due to the continued focus of European governments on startups.

In Africa, investments grew from $1.7 billion to $1.85 in 2019; deals fell by 16 percent. South America got $3.95 in 2019 over $3.45 billion last year, and the deals dipped by 15 percent. The investments in the Oceania region went down by six percent from $2.8 billion to $2.7 billion in 2019.

In the 2019 annual startup report, HexGn announced the Top Ten Startup Cities for 2020. In the order of global ranking, they are, San Francisco Bay Area, New York, Beijing, London, Shanghai, Delhi NCR, Singapore, Los Angeles County, Hangzhou and Bengaluru. These top ten cities from five countries, the United States, the United Kingdom, China, India and Singapore, account for 58 percent of global funding, signifying its standing.

Big things start small, Bahrain, Croatia, and Romania find a mention in the HexGn 2019 Global startup report for growing their startup funding by over twenty times in 2019, despite the slowdown.