Funding in North and South America: Three sectors with the highest funding/investment numbers in 2019

As we wrap up the year, we take a look at some of the most significant investment moves made in 2019 by the biggest money-spenders in North America. Below are the four sectors with major investment numbers in 2019, with some of their totals and significant single funding rounds.

Fintech and Banking

As Crunchbase puts it, “this seems to be the year that every startup decided to become a bank. And every venture capitalist decided to write a cheque to one or more of those startups.”

Investors in this sector definitely went in big. Data made available by Crunchbase shows that companies focused on fintech, banking and mobile payments in North and South America racked up $11.7 billion in 2019. That’s up by a significant amount from $9.2 billion in all of 2018. Spread across more than 700 known rounds for startups, it is obvious that single giant investments are not the only cause for such growth in the numbers. However, some single giant rounds did cause a spike in the totals. An example is Chime, a fintech company which pulled in an astonishing $700 million in two rounds, pushing its valuation to $5.8 billion. Another is Brazil’s Nubank, which raised a whopping $400 million in a single July round.

Real Estate and Property Management

Undoubtedly, the implosion of WeWork and its ill-fated IPO is one significantly bad news for this sector, but many other great things happened in 2019. As at the start of December 2019, investors had poured in just over $5.2 billion into a variety of U.S. startups. Some of the largest recipients include Knotel, the furnished workspace rental provider, Knock, the e-platform for the sale of homes, and Compass, a techy real estate brokerage. These three companies alone racked up about $1.2 billion in funding.

Insurance

As at mid-December, U.S. companies in the insurance and insurtech sector already secured just over $4.75 billion in seed through late-stage funding. That’s up by a good amount compared to the $3.4 billion raised in 2018. Clover Health closed the largest funding round, a $500 million Series E. Root Insurance raised $350 million, while Lemonade pulled in $300 million.