The third quarter of 2019 saw a slight decrease in venture private capital funding levels according to PwC and CB Insights' recently published MoneyTree report. Approximately $25.9 billion was raised across 1,304 deals, bringing total capital raised in 2019 to $83 billion.

Staying private longer. Companies have taken advantage of raising large amounts of private capital in recent years, increasing their valuations to unicorn status before going public or completing other types of exits. In the third quarter of 2019, late-stage or mezzanine financings reached a median deal size of $100 million according to the report. Mega-rounds, which raise over $100 million in proceeds, have slightly decreased this past quarter to 55 from last quarter's record of 67. In 2019, to date, $38.7 billion has been raised through venture mega-rounds.

Larger and later-stage financings are being undertaken by companies in a number of different sectors. For example, late-stage deals contributed substantially to the almost $1.1 billion raised in 47 venture deals in the third quarter of 2019 by companies in the internet of things ("IoT") sector. Startups in the fintech sector raised $3.8 billion, down from $5.2 billion in Q2. The largest rounds raised by these fintech companies were also later-stage mega-rounds.

The list of unicorn companies, valued at over $1 billion, has now reached 180 with an aggregate valuation of $621.2 billion, a record for venture-backed companies. There were 17 new unicorn "births" in the third quarter.

Exits. There were 22 IPOs completed by venture-backed companies in the third quarter of 2019, according to the report, bringing totals to 70 IPOs completed in 2019. M&A activity remained consistent with 163 M&A exits by venture-backed companies in the third quarter. In comparing IPO exits to M&A exits from the past quarter, IPO exits take longer than M&A exits by almost one year with the median time from first funding to IPO being 7.5 years and 6.6 years from first funding to M&A exit.

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