Now that stocks are officially in bear market territory, and measures to curb coronavirus have turned the biggest tech hubs into work-from-home zones, we decided to check in to see if the downturn has yet impacted startup funding totals.

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The broad finding: Not quite yet. A SA国际传媒 global analysis of sizable venture funding rounds ($10 million and up) shows that reported totals are down about 11 percent in 2020 compared to the same period last year.

Overall, investors have put $41.1 billion to work in reported rounds of $10 million and up through March 17 of this year, compared to $46.2 billion in the same period in 2019. Although it looks like a moderate decline, it鈥檚 actually too early to tell, given that a sizable percentage of financings actually get reported weeks or months after the date they close.

This year鈥檚 totals have been boosted by supergiant financings for a handful of companies, with a lot of the money going toward transportation. That includes -incubated autonomous transportation startup ($2.25 billion venture round), ride-hailing rivals and ($1.2 billion and $856 million, respectively) and electric aircraft developer ($590 million).

Major funding recipients in sectors other than transport, meanwhile, include plant-based meat producer ($500 million), banking upstart ($500 million) and data warehousing provider ($479 million).

Why are big deals happening in the current environment? Partly, it鈥檚 because big, complicated private financing rounds typically take weeks or months to close.

Thus, it鈥檚 not entirely surprising to see some of the largest private investments getting announced over the same period that major stock indexes are posting their largest declines in years. A deal put together in a more bullish climate might be made public in a more bearish one.

Earlier indications of funding cutbacks may be more easily seen for smaller rounds at early and seed stage, when sought-after deals come together more quickly. However, this is difficult for us to track here at SA国际传媒 because reporting delays are also most frequent at these earliest stages. So, it鈥檚 hard to determine whether a drop in funding is due to delayed reporting or fewer checks being written.

Historically, however, startup funding has trended sharply lower in recessionary times, including after the implosion of the dot-com bubble in 2001 and the financial crisis of 2008-9.

If past cycles are any guide, we can expect a sharp startup funding slowdown in coming months. We鈥檒l keep monitoring the funding totals for indications of that coming to pass.

Illustration: .

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The company, which is based in Indonesia, provides a wide range of services, from rides to payments to food delivery.

Gojek鈥檚 investors include , and . The company first raised money with its $2 million in December 2014, and has more than in funding, according to SA国际传媒.

The financing deal was finalized over the past week, Bloomberg reported. It鈥檚 an impressive sum that comes as the world economy feels the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. The U.S. stock market, for example, has sunk and investors have suggested that there will be a slowdown in venture capital funding.

鈥淲e鈥檙e not stopping there as we are still seeing strong demand among the investment community to partner with us,鈥� co-CEOs Andre Soelistyo and Kevin Aluwi wrote in an internal memo to employees, which was obtained by Bloomberg. 鈥淭here are a number of exciting ongoing conversations that we will be able to update you on very soon.鈥�

Gojek competes perhaps most notably with Singapore鈥檚 , another ride-hailing giant that鈥檚 trying to be the 鈥渆verything in one鈥� app with rides, payments, food delivery and other services. Grab–which has nearly $10 billion in funding, according to SA国际传媒–and Gojek were reportedly in talks about a merger, though Gojek denied it, according to Bloomberg.

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Usually when we talk about startup hubs we鈥檙e referring to metro areas. But the categorization can apply to countries as well. For as long as we鈥檝e been tracking, a handful of nations rake in the vast majority of startup venture funding while others get virtually none.

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Here, we鈥檙e going to look at the middle ground–a group of roughly 10 countries that bring in between $1 billion and $3 billion a year in early- and late-stage venture funding.* For want of a catchier term, we鈥檒l call them moderate-sized markets.

It鈥檚 a geographically diverse bunch. Three hail from Asia: Indonesia, South Korea and Hong Kong. Two are in Latin America: Brazil and Colombia. Four are from Europe: Spain, Sweden, Netherlands and Switzerland. And then there鈥檚 the lone continent, Australia

Putting it in perspective

You may be wondering how these mid-sized venture regions compare to the really big hubs. As it turns out, even when taken altogether, they鈥檙e rather tiny in comparison.

To put it in perspective, U.S. startups raised over $100 billion in reported financing rounds in 2019. The group of 11 countries we鈥檙e featuring here collectively brought in less than one-eighth that amount.

But while they may be small compared to the big hubs, moderate-sized markets are far more dynamic. To get a better idea of how the countries in this grouping rank, we鈥檝e charted out funding for each in the past two years:

Totals for the moderate-sized markets fluctuate a lot more than the larger ones. If we saw a 236 percent annual increase in U.S. venture funding, or a 74 percent decline, investors would be freaking out. In the moderate-sized markets, it鈥檚 quite common to see increases or declines of 50 percent or more.

Here are some other findings:

Giant deals skew totals: Seeing big fluctuations in national funding totals year over year doesn鈥檛 necessarily signal a more bullish or bearish overall investment climate. That鈥檚 largely聽 because really big rounds for one or more companies can really skew the results.

Take Indonesia, for example. In 2018, local ride-hailing wunderkind pulled in over $2.4 billion, which accounted for most of the venture for the entire country. A dip in funding totals for 2019 says less about the national startup investment climate than about Gojek鈥檚 fundraising schedule.

In Colombia, meanwhile, e-commerce unicorn was the main reason funding for the whole country surged in 2019. It closed a $1 billion round backed by .

Reported round counts fall below 150 a year: For this dataset, we looked at how many disclosed venture rounds of Series A or later closed in each country over the course of 2019.

While no one is on track to rival the United States鈥� thousands of rounds per year, the numbers are pretty encouraging in that they point to a solid foundation of funded companies already making it past seed stage.

Most funding increases are due to bigger rounds, not more deals: More than half the countries on our list reported year-over-year funding increases of over 50 percent. Yet when looking at round counts, most countries, based on data to date, were flat to down.

Rounds frequently get reported late, and that may lead to upward revisions. However, the basic trendline is pretty clear: Investments rose more than deal counts. That means backers are putting more money into the startups they like, but not necessarily doing a lot more deals at Series A and beyond.

Wrapping up

So, what area is poised to become the next big venture hub? We鈥檒l study that question in more detail next week, as we hone in on the fastest-growing startup funding markets.

For now, it鈥檚 safe to surmise that countries bringing in a few billion a year in startup funding today have plenty of more room to grow.

* We focused on early and late stage (Series A and beyond) and did not include seed-stage funding rounds. This is due in part to the pattern of seed-stage rounds being reported in SA国际传媒 weeks or months after they close, which can make results for recent quarters appear lower than warranted. While reporting delays also occur at Series A and beyond, they are less pronounced. Small seed rounds, particularly in non-English-speaking countries, may have a higher likelihood of not being included in the dataset.

Illustration: iStock