"Crunchbase numbers show that global venture funding in the first half of 2021 surged 61 percent compared to the prior peak of $179 billion in the second half of 2020. That’s up 95 percent compared with the first half of 2020, when venture investors deployed $148 billion globally. Growth and PE investors as a cohort have invested more dollars in rounds they led this year so far compared to the whole of 2020. The same can be said for venture investors, as well, by the half-year mark." With more than 1,600 companies having raised late-stage funding so far, we have the makings of a hockey-stick chart by the end of the year.