糖心视频

As the decade comes to a close, Crunchbase News 鈥� like all media outlets in December 鈥� is contractually obligated to publish a list of the biggest moments (we鈥檙e kidding, mostly). And since startups and venture capital are our jam, we figured we鈥檇 round up the biggest venture deals of the 2010s.

Subscribe to the Crunchbase Daily

Looking back at the past decade brings us to simpler times, when the largest venture funding rounds in the world were only in the nine-digit territory. In 2010, Uber was in its infancy, the term 鈥渦nicorn鈥� had yet to be coined, and people were still doing business with BlackBerries.

A few disclosures: this list includes companies that raised money in venture funding rounds (Series A, B, etc). It doesn鈥檛 include venture funds, a couple of which showed up in Crunchbase data, or other types of financing (e.g. private equity rounds). We also omitted venture rounds raised by pharmaceutical companies, because they tend to be outliers in the world of startups and have to raise unusually high amounts of capital (clinical trials ain鈥檛 cheap).

It鈥檚 been quite the decade, and the world of venture capital, startups and both the private and public market have changed a lot. Let鈥檚 look back at the rounds that made our jaws drop.

Better Place Series B ($350 million)

鈥檚 $350 million took first place for the largest venture funding round of 2010 after we kicked out of the running. It鈥檚 surprising looking back at 2010 and seeing that $350 million was the largest venture funding round for a startup that year, when now rounds are regularly in the hundreds of millions and often in the billions. Still, $350 million is a lot even now for a Series B round. Better Place鈥檚 Series B ended up being the company鈥檚 largest funding round (it later raised a $200 million and $100 million in another ). The company had about $945 million in , according to Crunchbase, but is now closed.

JD.com Series C ($1.5 billion)

鈥檚 marks the first $1 billion+ funding round of the decade, and the only one of 2011. It was also the largest venture funding round in the company鈥檚 history, coming in at $1.5 billion. JD.com, which later went public, was followed by in 2011 in terms of funding round size. Groupon raised $950 million for its –nearly at the 10-digit mark, but not quite.

GreatPoint Energy Series D ($420 million)

鈥檚 , led by , was 2012鈥檚 largest venture capital round, and the company鈥檚 last fundraising to date. In terms of funding round size, GreatPoint Energy was followed in 2012 by 鈥檚 venture funding round and 鈥檚 $250 million .

Pivotal Series A ($946 million)

took the title of 2013鈥檚 largest venture funding round. More notably, the nearly $1 billion round was for its after spinning out of EMC and . The company went on to raise $758 million more in funding ($105 million in its and $653 million in its ) before it went public. Earlier this year, it was acquired by VMWare.

Uber Series D ($1.4 billion)

was the lead investor for 鈥檚 in 2014, when the ride-hailing company was rapidly expanding. Though $1.4 billion is quite a chunk of change, it wasn鈥檛 the largest round Uber would raise. The company also pulled in $3.5 billion from in its , and $7.7 billion in in 2017, for example.

Airbnb Series E ($1.5 billion)

2015 saw consumer brands taking in the largest funding rounds of the year, with leading the pack (though did have a $1.6 billion round). Airbnb鈥檚 $1.5 billion was the largest venture funding round, but Uber also had a $1 billion , a $1 billion , and companies like and also had their own $1 billion venture funding rounds.

Didi Chuxing ($4.5 billion) and Ant Financial Series B ($4.5 billion)

Ride-hailing companies were among the most talked about startups in the United States in the 2010s, and they were no less prominent in China. brought in $4.5 billion, tying with for the spot of the largest venture funding round of the year. Uber wasn鈥檛 far behind with its $3.5 billion , and China鈥檚 came in with .

WeWork Series G ($4.4 billion)

Before its failed IPO in 2019, was a rising star and nabbed the spot for the largest venture funding round in the world in 2019. The , of course, was the lead investor for the deal. Along with being the biggest venture round in 2017, WeWork鈥檚 is also the company鈥檚 largest funding round to date. WeWork went on to raise billions more before its attempt to go public earlier this year.

Ant Financial Series C ($14 billion)

holds a number of records on this list: largest venture funding round of 2018, largest venture funding round of the decade (!), and the only company to have the largest round of multiple years (it tied with for the largest round in 2018). led the Chinese company鈥檚 Series C, which is its most recent funding round to date.

Tenglong Holding Group Series A ($3.7 billion)

had the largest venture funding round of this year, unless any companies are planning on announcing a nearly $4 billion round during the holiday week. led the giant that was announced earlier this month. Tenglong wasn鈥檛 the only Chinese company pulling in billion dollar rounds this year–the top three largest venture rounds of 2019 were for companies based in China (was second and was tied for third with India鈥檚 ).

After Looking Back We Look Ahead

Recent years have seen so much capital in the market that funding rounds at each stage have swelled in size. Companies are staying private longer, thanks to 2012鈥檚 JOBS Act, and raising more money. That could continue next year, if the WeWork fiasco hasn鈥檛 discouraged investors from cutting billion dollar checks. Whether we鈥檒l see more companies raising 10 figure rounds, that鈥檚 a question for 2020.

Illustration: