Two providers' $643 billion and $330 billion are not the same 2021

The record

In the first weeks of January 2022, two data providers each published a headline total for 2021 venture investment, and the two numbers do not match. Crunchbase News, publishing on 5 January 2022, reported that 'global venture investment last year totaled $643 billion, compared to $335 billion for 2020, marking 92 percent growth year over year.' Weeks later, the PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor for the fourth quarter of 2021 reported that 'US VC-backed companies raised $329.6 billion in 2021, nearly double the previous record of $166.6 billion raised in 2020.' Both reports agree the year roughly doubled the prior record; they disagree by nearly two-to-one on the dollar total.

What the sources establish

The gap is explained by what each figure counts, not by which provider is more accurate. Crunchbase's $643 billion is explicitly global, spanning every country its dataset covers. PitchBook and NVCA's $329.6 billion is explicitly a United States figure, the Venture Monitor being a joint publication of a data provider and an industry association describing the US venture market specifically. Both reports also measured a second figure that is not investment at all: the Venture Monitor states that VC firms raised a record amount for the year, $128.3 billion across 730 funds, which is money raised by venture funds from their own limited partners, not money those funds deployed into startups, a distinction the report keeps separate from its $329.6 billion investment figure.

Scope and revision

Neither total is wrong; each is scoped to a different geography and, within the Venture Monitor, to a different side of the venture cycle, fundraising by funds versus investment into companies. A reader who quotes '2021 venture funding' without naming the provider, the geography, and whether the figure is investment or fundraising has not yet specified which of at least three different numbers, $643 billion, $329.6 billion, or $128.3 billion, they mean. Provider figures for a still-recent year are also subject to revision as more deals are reported late; this trace cites both reports as published in January 2022 and does not attempt to reconcile them against any later restated total.

The decision in front of you

This is an editorial standard, not a ranking of providers. Before citing any 'venture funding hit a record in 2021' figure, name the provider, the geography it covers, and whether it measures capital invested in startups or capital raised by funds.

• Is the figure global, like Crunchbase's, or geography-specific, like the Venture Monitor's US total?
• Does it measure venture investment into companies, or venture fundraising by funds?
• Has the provider itself since restated the figure, and against what vintage of the report is a comparison being made?

2021 was, on every provider's own account, a record year. Which record, global investment, US investment, or US fund formation, depends entirely on which of these two reports, and which line inside them, is being quoted.