This post is part of our Startup Funding Benchmarking Series exploring the allocation, concentration, and macro trends in the financing of high growth startups.
July saw a 39% overall increase in median round sizes compared to July of 2014. The largest increase occurred in late stage rounds, which were up 77% year-over-year.
Series A, B, and C rounds saw increases of 46%, 25% and 9% respectively.
Mega rounds in the late stage category in July 2015 included $2 billion to Didi Taxi (Coatue Management, Tencent Holdings, Alibaba, Hillhouse Capital Group), $300 million to DraftKings ($300M USD from Kraft Group, The Walt Disney Company, Fox Investments), and $275 million to FanDuel (Comcast Ventures, Time Warner Investments, KKR, Google Capital).
July Round Medians Significantly Outpaced Year-to-Date Trend, Suggesting Valuations Are Still on the Rise
July median round sizes significantly surpassed the 2015 year-to-date trend of an overall 15% increase to median round sizes. While Series C and late stage rounds appear to have stabilized a bit more year-over-year, Series A and B rounds both continue to climb (+33% and +25% respectively).
There has been a great deal of discussion about a “private market bubble” and we believe round sizes are often a useful indicator of higher valuations, as investors hold strong to their ownership requirements and compete for deals by offering bigger checks for the same amount of dilution, with a higher hurdle the company must meet before taking their next financing.
This is a developing trend, and we will continue to report as it progresses.
Looking for resources to help you research startups and venture capital? Sign up for a free trial of Mattermark Professional to access the underlying data for these graphs, as well as in-depth profiles of more than one million high growth companies.