Latest data from CB Insight confirms that more money is being invested in the most successful companies. $91m was invested prior to exit in 2012-16 compared to $53m in 2009-12. The good news is that these companies were being sold for more money - $806m in the latest period compared with $500m previously. The other interesting data point is that 70% of the top 100 VC backed exits were enterprise focussed.
The last seven years have seen massive investments in tech, which has paid off with a slew of high-profile exits. But how have trends in top VC-backed exits shifted since 2009, when money started pouring back into the tech sector? We analyzed CB Insights data on the top 100 US VC-backed exits in each of two different time periods — Q1’09 through Q3’12, which saw the IPOs of Facebook, Groupon, and LinkedIn vs. Q4’12 through Q2’16, which saw the Whatsapp acquisition and Twitter’s IPO. We used the data on each 15-quarter period to understand how the most successful tech exits have changed across a number of different metrics, including financings, valuations, and geography.
