Every month at StrategyEye we analyze the top venture capital deals. Here’s the result of our analysis in an infographic of the 50 top startup investments in July.
It’s safe to say that VC activity is thriving.
July saw 634 VC deals with a collective valuation of $13.2 billion– the highest amount invested in any month of 2015 so far.
Leading the way with a post-investment valuation of $52 billion just 5 years after its launch is transportation behemoth Uber.
At times heavily criticized by the media for its no-holds-barred attitude to free market competition, the taxi-hailing business raised $1 billion in one of the largest rounds of funding in VC history.
$100 million of that comes from Microsoft, and whilst many speculate why, it is beginning to look as though Microsoft’s Azure cloud service will play a significant role in powering Uber.
Coming second and third in the top startup investments in July are 2 rival fantasy gaming sites DraftKings and FanDuel. The pair raised $300 million and $275 million respectively.
Both DraftKings and FanDuel let fans play fantasy sports with real money at stake.
They can do so on a per-game basis rather than committing to manage teams for an entire season. It’s an area that has seen dramatic growth as of late, with 40 million active US users.
In a round led by FOX Sports, DraftKings gave 11% of its business to the sports broadcasting network in the equity-for-marketing deal.
The conditions of the deal will see DraftKings make a $250 million advertising commitment to FOX. Not bad on FOX’s end, particularly after ESPN backed out of a transaction reportedly worth a similar amount.
With so many North American users, it is interesting that an Edinburgh based startup, FanDuel comes third out of the top startup investments in July.
Having raised $275 million, its success isn’t gauged by profit, but rather how much it gives away in prizes to its customers.
Where do we sign up?
For the rest of the top 50 VC startup investments in July, see the above infographic.
