Global Blockchain Investment Statistics in November: U.S. investment agencies are the most active, occupying "half of the country"

Text | Yuan Ting

This report was jointly released by the Zero One Think Tank & Digital Asset Research Institute

Editor's Note: Original title "November Global Blockchain Investment Institutions List: US Investment Institutions Are Most Active, Strategic Investment Proportions Are High"

According to the incomplete statistics of the Zero One Think Tank, in November 2019, a total of 54 financing or mergers and acquisitions in the blockchain field occurred around the world, which were basically flat on a month-on-year basis, up 69% year-on-year, and involved 87 investment institutions. Among them, 14 investment institutions have made 2 or more investments, and the remaining 73 have made 1 shot.

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Table 1: Comparison of investments by active investment institutions in November

Source: Open Channel, Zero One Think Tank

A total of 5 mergers and acquisitions occurred in November, a significant increase from October, of which one merger and acquisition price was 5 million US dollars.

Table 2: Details of Global Blockchain M & A Events in November

Source: Open Channel, Zero One Think Tank

U.S. investment institutions are the most active, with emerging players making up the backbone

There are far more active foreign investment institutions than domestic ones, of which there are 7 in the United States, accounting for half; 4 domestic investment institutions are located in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong.

Figure 1: Regional distribution of active investment institutions in November

Source: Open Channel, Zero One Think Tank

Of the 14 institutions, 9 are emerging investment institutions focused on the blockchain field, and most of them were established in 2017 or later. There are 5 traditional investment institutions: 500 Startups, Andreessen Horowitz, SoftBank, Origin Capital, and Winklevoss Capital.

Figure 2: Distribution of types of active investment institutions in November

Source: Open Channel, Zero One Think Tank

Blockchain investment institutions are keen on strategic investments

Looking at the distribution of investment rounds, most of the active investment institutions in November still maintained their focus on Round A and previous rounds (early stage), accounting for over 53%. Individually speaking, the corresponding four rounds in the early stage did not exceed six, and the Pre-A round investment was only one.

Another phenomenon is that active investment institutions are keen on strategic investment, and a total of 12 strategic investments occurred in November, accounting for 40%. The eight blockchain projects invested by Benrui Capital, Bawei Capital, Ke Yin Capital and SoftBank in November are strategic investments.

For blockchain investment institutions, in addition to obtaining financial returns, their investment goals are more strategic, such as participating in company management or technical support. In this way, the blockchain investment institution cooperates with the invested company to obtain technology, products, upstream and downstream business, or other aspects of complementarity, while helping enterprises to develop while promoting the development of the industry.

Figure 3: Distribution of investment rounds by active investment institutions in November

Source: Open Channel, Zero One Think Tank

High interest in other on-chain applications and digital assets

From the perspective of the types of projects invested by active investment institutions, other on-chain applications (except digital assets) are the areas that investment institutions are most concerned about. This trend is contrary to the blockchain projects that received financing in the first 10 months of 2019. Active institutions represented by Hashed and KBank Capital have paid more attention to on-chain applications such as blockchain games in November.

The second most concerned project is related to digital assets, involving digital currency exchanges / trading platforms, digital currency wallets, blockchain hardware (mining machines, etc.), and digital asset management.

Infrastructure technology / solutions are the largest type of projects invested by active investment institutions. Among them, Libra Association members and blockchain infrastructure startup Bison Trails raised $ 25.5 million in Series A financing, which was funded by Blockchain. Capital leaders, Kleiner Perkins, Coinbase, Consensys and several other companies involved.

Figure 4: Distribution of investment industries by active investment institutions in November

Source: Open Channel, Zero One Think Tank

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