Laxman Pai, Opalesque Asia: While investment in the U.S. remained strong during the quarter with $34 billion invested across 2,298 deals, the sudden emergence of COVID-19 created significant economic turbulence and uncertainty, and major waves in the public markets.
According to Q1 2020 KPMG Private Enterprise Venture Pulse, a significant number of in-progress IPO's ground to a halt, with several companies planning to postpone their offerings indefinitely.
Deal sizes were quite robust in the early part of Q1'20, led by Waymo's$2.25 billion round and a $1 billion raised by cleantech infrastructure investor Generate Capital.
The largest deals of the quarter went to companies in finance, B2B productivity, aerospace, entertainment, network management, and autonomous driving.
Given that the US and global markets are operating in unprecedented times, U.S.-based VC investors are poised to become even more cautious with their investments moving forward. They will likely also need to re-evaluate the needs of their existing portfolio companies given the changing business environment.
The global pandemic caused numerous jurisdictions to shut down large portions of their economies and severely curtail the movement of people both locally and globally.
With restrictions expected to last well into Q2'20 at a minimum, the VC market outlook for the next quarter is expected to be very grim in most regions of the world. Many investors are expected to sit ...................... To view our full article Click here
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