The startup and venture capital community moves fast. Innovation waits for no one and, as a result, it can be tempting to dash forward without examining trends and news from the recent past.
According to Crunchbase overall global funding for July is at $26.8 billion, up from July 2019’s $26.1 billion, and above the average for the last 12 months by more than $3 billion.
Globally Reliance Jio raised the largest money in July 2020 - raising USD 20billion.
New unicorns in July–companies valued in a private round at or above $1 billion for the first time–include Oatly, Ro, Remitly, Thrasio, Nxtra Data, Qumulo, Infobip, Sema4 and Innovium.
Of the nine companies, Thrasio reached unicorn status in the shortest amount of time, having raised its first seed round in 2018.
Notable sectors for investment
Health care funding garnered over $6 billion in July. Some leading fundings in this sector include the following:
- Chicago-based VillageMD, a provider of services for primary care physicians, raised $275 million.
- Texas-based Preventice Solutions, a maker of heart monitoring devices, raised $137 million.
- Medly Pharmacy, a digital pharmacy platform based in Brooklyn that offers free, same-day prescription delivery, raised a Series B of $100million.
- Based in San Francisco, Doctor on Demand, a mobile app that provides on-demand and scheduled visits with U.S.-licensed health care providers, raised a Series D of $75million.
- Brooklyn’s Cityblock Health, which addresses the root causes of health issues for underserved urban populations, raised a Series B of $53.5 million.
- Brisbane, California-based Caption Health uses artificial intelligence to interpret ultrasound exams has raised a Series B of $53million.
e-Commerce and shopping startups raised close to $4 billion in July 2020.
- Flipkart, an e-commerce giant out of India that competes with Amazon, raised an additional $1.2 billion.
- Beijing-based Missfresh , an e-commerce platform for high-quality fresh food, raised a whopping $495 million.
- Misfits Market, a subscription service for organically sourced produce out of New Jersey, raised an $85million Series B.
- Bolt, a San Francisco-based online checkout experience platform for e-commerce, raised a $50 million Series C.
Investments in electric vehicle companies led the transportation sector in July 2020.
- Rivian, an electric truck manufacturer based in Michigan that has yet to launch a product, raised a a round of $2.5billion.
- Guangzhou-based Xpeng Motors, an electric vehicle manufacturer, raised $500 million.
- Based in Alberta, Canada, Drivewyze, a mobile driving solution for the transportation industry in North America, raised $60 million.
With the supply chain impacted by COVID-19, logistics providers raised large rounds in July.
- Zongteng Network, a Shenzhen-based provider of cross-border shipping and fulfillment solutions for e-commerce, raised a $71 million Series C
- Shanghai-based FineEx, an e-commerce warehouse integration service, raised $71 million in a Series D.
- Palo Alto, California’s Dexterity, which builds robots for logistics, warehousing and supply chain operations, came out of stealth raising a $56 million Series A.
Sales and marketing startups raised just under $500 million in July, matching average funding for the first six months of 2020. These investments range from customer service engagement platforms to digital platforms focused on helping marketers grow their customer base.
- San Francisco’s enterprise contact center platform Talks, with more than 1,800 customers in 75 countries, raised a $143 million Series C.
- New York-based Ceros, an interactive content creation platform for marketers and designers, raised $100 million in a private-equity.
- Chorus.ai, a San Francisco-based conversation intelligence platform for sales teams, raised a $45million in Series C.
- Berlin based zeotap, which helps brands understand their customers, raised a $42 million Series C.
- Insider, a Singapore-based platform that helps digital marketers drive growth, raised a $32 million Series C
