Mega funding rounds in Asia led by the biggest ever fund raise of $5.5 billion by China-based Didi Chuxing propelled the overall venture capital funding to reach record levels in 2017. According to a recent report by Preqin, 2017 was a record year for venture capital-backed deals, with 11,144 deals announced for an aggregate deal value of $182 billion. This surpasses the earlier record of $148 billion set in 2015 through 13,019 investments, and is 26 per cent higher than the total deal value reported in 2016.
Above -Global Venture Capital Deals*, 2008 – 2017
US accounted for the largest portion of the total deal activity, Asia also made up a significant proportion of deal activity, with $65 billion invested in Greater China and $10bn in deals announced for India.
Merger and Acquisitions
Mergers and acquisition activity in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, excluding Japan, recorded a 4.5 percent increase in transaction value at $673.5 billion across 3750 deals in 2017, a recent report of Mergermarket revealed. In contrast, global M and A fell just short of previous years as uncertainty appeared to take its toll on investments. Global M and As dipped 3.2% to $3.15 trillion across 18,433 deals compared with $3.26 trillion across 18,592 deals in 2016. The Walt Disney Company’s acquisition of Twenty-First Century Fox Inc’s entertainment assets was the largest deal of the year worth $68.4 billion.
World Money
China’s forex reserves are at $3.14 trillion.
Sovereign Wealth funds total about $7.2 trillion.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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