KPMG LLP released their Venture Pulse Q2’17 report on July 13th that found venture capital recovering from the 11 quarter low in Q4 of 2016, reporting $21.8 billion invested during Q2 2017. The US venture capital market remains healthy overall, but cautious investors are affecting early deal stages leading to a further plateau of deal volume with 1,963 deals this quarter, slightly above the 1,954 deals in Q1 2017.
The Venture Pulse report examines the global trends in venture capital investment data, providing regional and global perspectives on information and insights. The report is published and produced by KPMG Enterprise’s Global Network for Innovative Startup, while KPMG LLP is the U.S. member firm of KPMG International, focused on audits, taxes, and advising within the US.
Conor Moore, National Co-Lead partner of KPMG LLP’s Venture Capital Practice, talked about some of the trends in a press release, stating, “Companies are using portions of fundraises to provide some liquidity to founders and other shareholders in order to alleviate some of the pressure to go public. This is having a positive impact as companies can better time their entry into the public market which should increase the quality of the offering.”
In terms of industries, the US remains the top region for biotechnology companies both in money invested as well as the number of companies, with investment towards biotech and pharmaceuticals hitting $4.6 billion. The U.S. is also at the core of surging venture capital activity in the automotive technology industry, specifically California which has an intense focus on autonomous driving vehicles and supporting sectors such as crash avoidance, cybersecurity, insurance and others. Global venture capital reached $254.1 million globally during the first half of 2017 and is expected to easily surpass the $517.6 million for all of 2016. In addition, this upturn is fueling growth in artificial intelligence as well as deep learning technologies.
