Fintech startups and unicorns had a stellar Q4 2020

The fourth quarter of 2020 was as busy as you imagined, with super-late-stage startups reaching new valuation thresholds at a record pace, and total venture capital funding in the United States recording its second-best result of all time.

That's according to data released recently by CB Insights, which complements our look back at 2020's venture capital year in America from yesterday.

At the time, we noted that American startups raised an average of $428 million each day last year, a sum that helps illustrate how rapid the private markets moved during the odd period.

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But a peek at aggregate results for the world's largest VC market provides only part of the picture. We need to narrow our lens and peer more deeply into standout categories to understand how the U.S. venture capital market managed to post its biggest year ever in terms of dollars invested, despite seeing deal volume slip for a second consecutive year.

This morning, we're scraping data together to better understand.

First, we want to see how unicorns performed in Q4 2020. This column noted in late December that it felt like unicorn creation was rapid in the quarter; how did that hold up?

Then we'll dig into PitchBook data concerning the fintech sector, a huge recipient of venture capital time, attention and money.

Fintech's 2020 is a good perspective to view both the year and its wild final quarter. So this morning, as America itself resets, let's take a moment to understand last year just a little bit better as we get into this new one.

One of the most curious things about the unicorn era is the rising bet it represents. I've written about this before so I will be brief: Nearly every quarter, the number of unicorns - private companies worth $1 billion or more - goes up.

The private market is able to create more unicorns than it has been historically able to exit them.

Some of these companies exit, sometimes in group fashion. But, quarter after quarter, the number of unexited unicorns rises. This means that the bet on expected future liquidity from venture capitalists and other private investors keeps ratcheting higher.