【桑葛石原研翻译系列】2020年第三季度的风险投资分析

作者：Marta Zadravec

尽管新冠大流行引起了美国的经济波动，但风险投资(VC)和创业生态系统在2020年还是保持了足够的弹性。Pitchbook和CB Insights报告提供了2020年第三季度风险投资融资的详细概述。大多数风投已经适应了远程的经营方式，资本投资在第三季度的速度持续强劲。风险投资在2020年第三季度达到365亿美元，同比增长22%，较第二季度增长30%。

创业生态系统对美国目前面临的严峻挑战做出了正向的反应。初创企业和企业家希望采取积极行动，以应对我们这个时代的主要挑战：气候变化、医疗保健和新冠肺炎。

此外，Crunchbase的数据显示，在2020年第一季度至第三季度期间，与2019年同一季度相比，他们在医疗、应用程序、支付、教育和游戏方面的投资有所增加。过去两个季度的投资激增可能会导致该行业出现5至10年的增长。

虽然在当前的环境下，上市对高增长的公司来说是一个很好的选择，但另一种方式在生态系统中越来越受欢迎：特殊用途收购公司(SPAC)。

不过并非所有生态系统中的投资都是积极的，种子阶段和早期风险投资的数量在迅速下降，初创公司的首次融资数量也在急剧减少，这在第三季度达到了10年来的低点。

种子和天使投资

随着种子投资在第三季度持续低迷，但天使投资仍然保持了相当的弹性。第三季度的种子资金总额为26亿美元，同比下降32%，环比下降11%。值得注意的是，种子阶段融资是广泛的存在报道延迟，因为较小的种子融资通常不是通过新闻来报道的，而是由创始人之后增加的。

资料来源：Crunchbase

第三季度，新冠疫情给风险投资市场带来的首个重大挑战就是行业调整以适应数字环境。

早期阶段的VC

早期风险投资交易活动显示，2020年第三季度有反弹的迹象，657笔交易筹集了92亿美元，本年度截止到现在2351笔交易总额达到277亿美元。然而，因为疫情影响，2020年的早期风险投资交易活动不太可能与2019年的相比。

据Pitchbook报道，在第二季度业绩低迷后，早期投资者开始更愿意投资这种“新正常情况”。

许多投资者已经开始走出他们的舒适区，开始投向其他领域，特别是由于疫情影响而加速发展的行业，如远程医疗和技术教育。

医疗风险投资

值得注意的是，在第三季度25家最大的早期风险投资交易中，有19笔是在医疗领域。Rock Health报告称，本季度为美国数字医疗初创公司提供了40亿美元的资金，其中大部分是由一系列远程健康和研发科技公司的后期融资推动的。

也就是说，2020年是有史以来最大的数字医疗投资年。截至第三季度，美国数字医疗初创公司获得的40亿美元投资，今年的总投资达到94亿美元，每个季度至少有24亿美元的投资——始终高于2018-2019年21亿美元的季度平均水平。

资料来源：Rock Health Funding

社区及其医疗基础设施正在为未来的新冠疫情做准备，这可能会因流感季节而加剧。医疗机构系统面临资金枯竭和低效的政府医保和社会保险的支付变化。经济、医疗状况和个人生活不太可能很快恢复“旧的秩序”。

今年迄今为止，大型交易远远占数字医疗融资总额的三分之一（41%），联合健身公司Zwift筹集了迄今为止最大的一轮融资——C轮融资4.5亿美元。

截至2020年第三季度，已有24家数字医疗公司完成了价值1亿美元或更多的大型交易，这已经是2018年创下的12笔年度交易记录的两倍。今年到目前为止，大型交易占整个数字医疗融资总额的三分之一(41%)以上，其中Zwift公司在C轮融资中获得了迄今为止最大的一轮融资——4.5亿美元。

大型交易的增加反映了资本向数字医疗VC集中的趋势。与2019年第一季度相比，2020年第一季度提供远程医疗服务的公司获得的资金显著增加，从6.62亿美元增加到16亿美元，增幅超过两倍。

资料来源：Rock Health Funding

由于传统医疗系统的瘫痪，无法亲自就诊，据估计，2019年6月至2020年6月期间，美国远程医疗就诊增加了4000%以上。远程医疗将继续增长，预计该行业将在2021年获得更多投资。

【原文】

Venture Capital in Q3 2020 – Healthcare funding on the rise

By Marta Zadravec

Despite the economic volatility in the US and COVID-19 pandemic — the venture capital (VC) and startup ecosystem have broadly spoken, been resilient in 2020. Pitchbook and CB Insights report provides a detailed overview of venture capital funding in Q3 in 2020. Most VCs have adapted to new, remote ways of doing business and capital invested continued at a strong pace in the third quarter. VC investments to US-based, VC-backed companies hit a 7-quarter high in Q3’20 at $36.5B, up 22% year-over-year (YoY), and 30% from Q2’20.

The startup ecosystem appears to be responding admirably to the grave challenges currently facing the US. Startups and entrepreneurs look to be moving aggressively to address the major challenges of our time: climate change, healthcare and COVID-19.

Moreover, Crunchbase data shows increased investment between Q1 and Q3 2020 versus the same period in 2019 in health care, apps, payments, education, and gaming.

This surge in investment over the last two quarters could result in a five to 10 year boost for the industry.

While traditional IPOs are a good option for high-growth companies in the current climate, an alternative way to go public has gained popularity in the ecosystem: the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).

Not all trends in the ecosystem have been positive. The number of seed and early-stage VC investments has rapidly declined, and we have seen an even steeper reduction in the number of first financings for startups, which reached a 10-year low in Q3.

Seed and Angel Investment

As the seed market continues its sluggish pace through Q3, angel investments have remained rather resilient. At $2.6 billion, seed funding in the third quarter was down 32 percent year over year and down 11 percent quarter over quarter. It’s worth keeping in mind that seed is the stage with the most extensive reporting delays, as smaller seed fundings are often not reported via the news cycle, but added by founders over time.

Source: Crunchbase

With deal sourcing moving online, the first major challenge COVID-19 brought to the venture market has slowly lessened overthe third quarter as the industry adjusted to the digital setup. With deal sourcing moving online, the first major challenge COVID-19 brought to the venture market has slowly lessened over the third quarter as the industry adjusted to the digital setup.

Early-stage VC

Early-stage VC deal activity showed signs of rebounding in Q3 2020 with $9.2 billion raised across 657 deals, bringing the YTD total to $27.7 billion across 2,351 deals. However, early-stage VC deal activity in 2020 is unlikely to match the 2019 activity.

After a lackluster Q2, early-stage investors are becoming more comfortable investing in this “new normal” – reports Pitchbook.

Many investors have begun to step outside their comfort zones and embrace deals from entrepreneurs beyond their immediate network, particularly in sectors that accelerated due to the ongoing pandemic, such as telemedicine and education technology.

Healthcare Venture funding

Notably, 19 of the 25 largest early-stage VC deals in Q3 were in healthcare. Rock Health reports $4 billion in funding for U.S. digital health startups this quarter, much of which was driven by a flurry of telehealth investments and late-stage rounds for R&D and fitness tech companies.

That said, 2020 is the largest funding year ever for digital health. The $4.0B invested in US-based digital health startups through Q3 brings the year’s running total to $9.4B. At least $2.4B has been invested each quarter this year—consistently above the quarterly average of $2.1B across 2018-2019.

Source: Rock Health Funding

Communities and their healthcare infrastructure are bracing for future waves of COVID-19—potentially compounded by flu season. Provider systems and practices with depleted finances face the potential of months of lower utilization and a shifting payer mix with more Medicaid, individually insured, and uninsured patients.

It is unlikely that the economy, healthcare, or our personal lives will return to the “old normal” any time soon.

Twenty-four (24) digital health companies have raised mega deals of $100M or more through Q3 of 2020.This already doubles the previous annual record of 12 mega deals set in 2018. Mega deals account for well over one-third (41%) of total digital health funding so far this year with connected fitness company Zwift raising the largest round so far—$450M in Series C funding.

The rise in mega deals reflects a trend towards capital concentration in digital health venture investment. Funding for companies that offer telemedicine specifically saw a significant spike from Q1-Q3 2020 compared to Q1-Q3 2019—$1.6B in funding compared to $662M, an over two-fold increase.

Source: Rock Health Funding

Driven by the near shutdown of our traditional healthcare system for in-person visits, utilization of the former—synchronous patient-provider visits—have skyrocketed. By one estimate, telemedicine claims in the US rose by over 4000% between June 2019 and June 2020.

Telemedicine will keep rising and we can expect to see this industry to receive more funding in 2021.

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