VC funding remained red-hot in October

At this point, GPT-3 could accurately write a piece about VC funding in 2021. The big-picture story has been the same each month, and for the year as whole: VCs are spending money at a blistering pace, and valuations are soaring.

October was no different. VCs invested $54 billion in 2,000 companies globally across October, per Crunchbase, up 84% from last year and an uptick from August ($50 billion) and September ($51 billion). There were 43 new unicorns—private companies with $1+ billion valuations—added in the month, bringing the 2021 total to 460 new unicorns. There were just 165 new $1+billion companies in 2020.

Here’s a look at some of the biggest emerging-tech rounds of the last month:

• HT Aero is a China-based flying car (ok, technically: “urban air mobility”) startup that raised a $500 million Series A in October. The company says it intends to officially roll out a low-altitude flying vehicle in 2024.
• Magic Leap, an augmented reality hardware- and software-maker, raised $500 million last month. It’s raised $3.5 billion in total so far, and recently pivoted to an enterprise focus after a hype-betraying failure on consumer AR in 2018.
• ProLogium is a Taiwan-based solid-state battery-maker that raised $326 million. It’s been around since 2006, and originally worked on consumer electronics batteries, before pivoting to autos.
• FTX Exchange is a crypto exchange that raised…$420.69 million in its October round. -_-

While we’re here: Climate-tech funding is experiencing a hot streak now, too.