Extra Crunch Tuesday: As startups accelerate in record Q3, Europe and Asia rack up huge VC results

Welcome to Extra Crunch Tuesday

I follow technology news pretty closely, but while editing Alex Wilhelm’s column this morning, I learned something new:

“Venture capital outside North America might have just had its best quarter in years, if not ever.”

Drawing upon data from CB Insights, Alex found that investors closed 1,585 deals in Asia during Q3 2020, compared to 1,563 in North America.

The amount of venture capital flowing into startups around the world grew about 40% in the last year, but what are investors buying into and “are there really enough fast-growing startups to warrant this torrent of cash?”

We have two investor surveys coming up this week: one later today on AR/VR by Lucas Matney, and another regional overview from Mike Butcher, this time polling Zurich-based VCs.

Thanks very much for reading; I hope you have a great week.

Walter Thompson
Senior Editor, TechCrunch
@yourprotagonist

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Are VCs cutting checks in the closing days of the 2020 election?

Given what’s at stake in the 2020 U.S. elections, some VCs are still operating with a business as usual mindset, while others are tapping the brakes.

“In a time of uncertainty, we’re taking a small step back,” said Vice Ventures founder and general partner Catharine Dockery.

On the other end of the spectrum are VCs like Alexa von Tobel of Inspired Capital: “If anything, the pace is increasing,” she told reporter Natasha Mascarenhas.

“It’s a messy, nuanced reaction for a messy, nuanced year,” Natasha reports.

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Unusual Ventures’ Sarah Leary and John Vrionis join Extra Crunch Live today at 2 pm EDT/11 am PDT

Sponsored by TechCrunch

Early-stage founders are encouraged to take part in today's discussion; sign up for Extra Crunch and get 10% off!

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Late-stage deals made Q3 2020 a standout VC quarter for US-based startups

Kicking off what he’s dubbed “Data Week,” Alex Wilhelm unpacked numbers from PitchBook and CBInsights to better understand why American startups had “a massive third quarter.”

A few of the questions he asks and answers:

• How much money was raised by U.S.-based startups in Q3 2020?
• How many deals was that money spread between?
• How did mega-rounds (deals worth $100 million or more) fare in Q3?

“It’s a good time to be a startup that needs cash to grow,” he concludes.

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Disney+ UX teardown: wins, fails and fixes

In light of Disney’s decision to reorient its corporate strategy around streaming, reporter Steve O’Hear and UX Pete Ramsey analyzed the Disney+ user experience.

They found a few deft strokes during the onboarding experience, but discovered that even a multibillion media company is likely to make common UX mistakes.

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Three views on the future of media startups

Privately-held media startups Axios, Morning Brew and The Juggernaut each posted good news last week, which led Equity hosts Natasha Mascarenhas, Danny Crichton and Alex Wilhelm to look at the future of the industry:

• Natasha: Who gets to succeed?
• Danny: “Advertising is an insidious cancer.”
• Alex: “Outliers do not make for good examples.”

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Private equity firms can offer enterprise startups a viable exit

By 2016, Ping Identity had raised $128 million after 14 years in business, but it wasn’t in a strong enough position to IPO.

CEO and co-founder Andre Durand accepted an $600 M&A offer from Visa Equity Partners, which “promised to keep building the company, something that corporate buyers wouldn’t guarantee.”

Today, Ping Identity is a public company with a market cap of $2.81 billion. To learn more about how private equity firms can boost enterprise startups, Ron Miller interviewed representatives from Vista Equity, Thoma Bravo and Scaleworks.

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