From supergiant rounds to a shift in industry trends, to the biggest funding round to who’s gone public, to the most searched on Crunchbase – these are the biggest moments of the year, as told through Crunchbase data. 

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Most searched private companies in 2018

Hubble ContactsHubble contacts logo
Founded in 2016
Total funding amount: $73.7 million
Hubble sells contact lenses directly through an e-commerce, subscription only model. This year, Hubble Contacts made a big splash by raising a $40 million venture round with investors like Greycroft, Founders Fund, and blisce/.

UberUber logo
Founded
in 2009
Total funding amount: $24.2 billion
You know Uber, the notorious ride-sharing mobile app. It’s no surprise Uber made our list with $1.1 billion in funding raised over 2018, and another $2 billion in debt financing. Coincidentally, Uber is in talks to acquire Bird or Lime, two other companies featured on our list of most searched private companies in 2018.

BirdBird scooters logo
Founded in 2017
Total funding amount: $415 million
Bird, the dockless electric scooter company, raised $400 million this last year. The company was founded in 2017 by a former Uber and Lyft executive, Travis VanderZanden. In May, Crunchbase News outlines how Bird is potentially worth $1 billion.

Coinbase Coinbase logo
Founded
 in 2012
Total funding amount: $525.3 million
Coinbase, the digital currency wallet service that allows traders to buy and sell bitcoin. With bitcoin’s price peaking at the end of 2017, Coinbase secured $300 million in October 2018 with a Series E round led by Tiger Global Management.

LimeLime or Limebike logo
Founded
 in 2017
Total funding amount: $455 million
Bikesharing startup, Lime’s funding skyrocketed after Lime announced its entrance into the e-scooter and pedal assist, e-bike games. In 2018, Lime raised both a Series B and Series C worth $405 million collectively.


The biggest funding round of 2018

The biggest funding round of 2018

The biggest funding round of 2018 was Ant Financial’s $14 billion Series C.


The most searched industries

SaaS | Fintech | Artificial Intelligence | Healthcare | E-Commerce | Software

The most searched headquarter locations

United States | Europe | New York | California | San Francisco | United Kingdom


Most searched venture firms in 2018

Sequoia CapitalSequoia Capital logo
Founded in 1972
Number of investments: 1,202
Number of exits: 243
As one of the oldest and most well known venture firms, Sequoia topped our list of most searched venture firms in 2018. Sequoia focuses on energy, financial, enterprise, healthcare, internet, and mobile startups. Some of their more notable investments in 2018 included Snowflake Computing, Front App, and Drift.

500 Startups
Founded in 2010
Number of investments: 1,740
Number of exits: 174
One of the most famous early-stage funds, 500 Startups is a global venture capital seed fund with over $350 AUM. With an emphasis on investing in mobile, e-commerce, and software, 500 Startups has had a notable year. In 2018, they’ve invested in startups like, YayPay, Chewse, and Easyship.

Tiger Global Management
Founded
in 2001
Number of investments: 279
Number of exits: 50
Tiger Global invests capital globally and typically invests in later-stage rounds. The firm focuses primarily on the global internet, technology, telecom, media consumer, and industrial sectors. Some of their most prominent investments this year include Yaoshibang, Invision, and Instacart.

 


  1. The people love their ICOs. With insanely large funding rounds raised in 2018, these large ICOs garnered a lot of attention. Additionally, you can learn more about how we calculate Crunchbase Rank here.

  2. Earlier in 2018, we announced our partnership with G2 Crowd, in our Crunchbase Marketplace. You can now add tech stack information to your Crunchbase profiles and Crunchbase searches. Our Crunchbase News team used G2 Crowd’s tech stack data to come up with this list of the most popular web frameworks among seed and early-stage startups.

  3. These ten accelerators saw the most exits which means either their portfolio company was acquired or went public. It’s no surprise heavyweights like Y-Combinator and 500 Startups topped the list.


Most read articles of 2018

Here’s Who Has Gone Public In 2018 

“Earlier this year, it was too early to tell if the 2018 IPO cycle would bear out. After all, the preceding several years had proven to be consistent disappointments when it came to tech startup liquidity. Few startups went public, and a horde of richly-valued unicorns sat on the sidelines simply waiting…

Happily, for investors and founders alike, 2018 has produced a host of technology IPOs.”

 

7 Failed Startups and the Lessons Learned

“With the Startup Genome Report citing that within three years, 92% of startups fail, maybe there’s something to learn before jumping into your own company. Let’s take a look at some common blind spots and how we can avoid them.

We reflect on seven promising startup stories that ended in failure to see what we can learn from them and their mistakes.”


From a scooter-phenomenon to a disappointing outlook for bitcoin, 2018 has been an interesting year to say the least. And we have a feeling 2019 won’t be much different. 😉

 

  • Originally published December 19, 2018, updated April 26, 2023