State of Private Markets: Q4 2021 and year in review

Author: Peter Walker
Read time: 11 minutes
Published date: February 15, 2022

Carta regularly shares insights from our private market data to help investors, founders, and employees make decisions. Here are the trends and benchmarks we saw in 2021:

• An astonishing new high in rounds and money raised. The number of rounds on the Carta platform increased 31% over 2020, and the total amount of capital more than doubled. This larger amount of capital landed in both more deals and larger ones. The volume of deals and capital are up in every sector and stage, as well as across geographies.

• Is healthcare the new SaaS? While all sectors saw a jump this past year, health and biotech for the second year in a row raised more than any other sector—including software as a service—in seed through Series C rounds.

• The “Great Resignation” for tech startups may be slowing. Employee-initiated terminations dropped throughout the last quarter. While 86% of terminations in Q3 were voluntary, that number dropped to 82% for Q4.

2021: Strongest year on record

Rounds and cash raised

Although the number of deals and amount of cash raised by companies on the Carta platform have increased each year since 2016, both accelerated this past year. The total amount of venture investments skyrocketed by 111%, from $92B to $194B. The number of deals also increased from under 6,000 in 2020 to over 7,500 in 2021. That’s a 31% increase compared with an average of 19% per year over the four preceding years.

Cash raised by industry

Every sector saw a jump in funding in 2021, but the largest amount of money poured into health, healthtech, and biotech.

Deals by state

The geography of venture capital doesn’t seem to have changed much over the past five years. In 2021, California was home to companies receiving 47% of total dollars—exactly the same as in 2016.

Cash raised by stage

Capital to later-stage companies continued to grow in 2021. The percentage of funding going to companies at Series D and beyond has more than doubled over the last five years—going from 13% to 33%.

Percent change in round sizes

Dilution

Early-stage headcounts

Late-stage headcounts

Employee departures

Employee options exercised

Tender offers

Mergers and acquisitions

Q4 2021: A dip in venture activity

Rounds and cash raised by quarter

Within this record-setting year, venture funding peaked in Q2 and has since fallen for two successive quarters, with Q4 seeing 20% fewer deals and 5% less cash than Q2.

Cash raised by stage

SAFEs and convertible notes

Early-stage round size distribution

Late-stage round size distribution

Early-stage valuations and raises

Late-stage valuations and raises

Dilution by quarter

Download a PDF of this State of private markets: Q4 2021 and year in review report.

Methodology

Carta’s State of Private Markets report examines trends across venture-backed companies and security holders in private companies to promote transparency between employers and employees, prompting fair equity management across private markets.