Good morning,
Welcome to 2022! I hope you found a moment or two away from your inbox to enjoy with family and friends.
It’s a short form text-lite edition of Cut Through Venture today, as I sense (hope) CTV's subscribers’ inbox engagement will remain low until at least next week.
Five things to know to kick-start your year:
1. December announced deals hit $1.3B, making December the fourth ‘unicorn month’ of 2021. Announced deals in Q4 edged above $3.3B, making it the second-biggest quarter of ANZ startup funding ever – a whisker behind Q3.
2. And the elephant in the room? Yes, 2021 was a record year for startup investments! Announced Australian and New Zealand investment rounds topped $9.6B in 2021. Treat this as a preliminary count only, since deal info continues to trickle in from investors. Final Aussie 2021 figures will be revealed in the inaugural State of Australian Startup Funding 2021, out later this quarter. To ensure your investments are counted, click here.
3. Back to the month at hand... Marketing/Customer Success took dollar line honours for the first time in 2021, while B2B Software and Health/Biotech led the charge in terms of the number of deals. NSW had a unicorn month of its own. Average deal sizes across the stage spectrum were in line with 2021 averages.
4. E-commerce marketing solution Rokt came oh-so-close to breaking the deal size record set by Simpro last month. The scaleup is tipped for a US IPO in 2023. The pandemic induced pet lovefest that swept the nation pushed PetCircle to new heights, and allowed it to raise a mega-round, becoming a unicorn in the process. Atlassian alum led user research platform Dovetail raised $86M, following a $5M raise just 3 months ago.
4. Founding teams with at least one female received just a little over 1% of December funding. This is not quite as sad as it sounds, as a disproportionate share of the 17 female-led startups that raised funds did not report dollars raised. We're partnering with our friends at Cake Equity to deep dive on this topic in The State of Australian Startup Funding.
January’s Asks: 1) Professional startup investors and startup founders, complete the State of Australian Startup Funding Survey. 2) Startup investors, submit your deals to ensure you're included in The State of Australian Startup Funding. 3) CTV’s sector taxonomy has received a 2022 upgrade. Check it out here, and speak now or forever hold your peace.
Have a fantastic start to 2022. If the first few days are any indication, it's shaping up to be an interesting year.– Chris
