In 2020, all of the top five venture capital (VC) funded companies in North America were headquartered in California, according to GlobalData, a leading and data analytics company.
Topping the list were SpaceX, Robinhood Financial, National Resilience, Quibi Holdings and Pony.ai. These companies collectively raised $6bn.
Aurojyoti Bose, a leading Business Fundamentals analyst at GlobalData, comments: “The US, especially California, has been a hub for innovation. The start-ups evolving from this region are seen as lucrative investment opportunities for VC investors, and the trend has been continuing for years with the country’s conducive start-up ecosystem also playing a crucial role.”
SpaceX raised $2.5bn through four funding rounds, which is the highest VC funding among all North American companies during 2020. The company was founded in 2002 and is in the aerospace sector.
SpaceX is followed by a fintech firm Robinhood Financial, which raised $1.3bn through four funding rounds.
National Resilience and Quibi Holdings, which are in the drug development and mobile video space, raised $750m each, while Pony.ai, which is in the autonomous driving space, raised $729m during 2020.
Bose added that: “Although Canada’s start-up ecosystem is catching up, and some cities in the country are already being considered as tech hubs, the country is nowhere close to the scale of the US. Of the total North American VC deals, US companies attracted more than 90% of the deal volume and deal value in 2020. Canada held a distant second position with around 2% share of the total deal value and 6% share of the deal volume.”