Midyear update: The pandemic's toll on VC

• VC investment is down from last year at this time but invested capital is still holding well above levels seen in comparable periods of recent years. Investors bet $63.2 billion on VC-backed deals, down from $72.2 billion in the last year's first half.


• Deal flow has fallen more sharply, however, with 4,675 funding rounds this year vs. 6,357 in last year's first half.


• One segment of the market that has held up: mega-rounds. Deals of $100 million or more are a bit behind last year's first-half tally, but the rough $29 billion sum of mega-fundraising rounds puts this category on track to surpass last year's $55 billion, the second-biggest haul on record.


• By contrast, as would be expected during these panicky times, investors held onto their seed capital. Deals plunged 45% to 803 vs. 1,447 deals done in the first half of 2019, with invested capital down to $2.2 billion from $3.3 billion. Dealmaking goes on, but it's clearly favoring well-established players.

—Alexander Davis

• The deal was reportedly valued at $1.2 billion, a significant haircut from the $3.2 billion figure the startup reached less than two years ago


• It also brings ecommerce giant Amazon into the ranks of other corporate efforts to build autonomous vehicles

• DevOps providers raised $6.3 billion in VC in 2019 and $2 billion in Q1 2020
   
• Increased recognition of DevOps as a strategy to drive digital transformation is fueling investment
   
• The COVID-19 pandemic could accelerate investment in digital strategies, with vendors of virtual collaboration tools well positioned to benefit