MoneyTree™ Definitions
Agriculture
All aspects of farming, including crop production and health, animal production and wellness, as well as machinery, products and related activities.
Automotive and Transportation
All elements of travel by air, automobile, train, trucking and other forms of transportation. Also addresses manufacturing, parts and maintenance.
Business Products and Services
All business needs and associated services: advertising, PR, HR, staffing, training records keeping, legal services, hazardous waste office supplies and furniture, information services, hardware, facilities and more. Also covers associated services like commercial printing, outsourcing and packaging.
Computer Hardware and Services
Physical computing devices and related services, though specifically not the software used on those machines. Includes personal and business computers, networking equipment, leasing companies, peripherals, handhelds, servers, supercomputers, gaming devices and IT services.
Consumer Products and Services
All goods and services for personal use (not Business or Industrial), including but not limited to: appliances, automotive services, rentals, consumer electronics, clothes, home furnishings, jewelry, pet products, tobacco, toys and games.
Electronics
Concerned mainly with electronic components like chips, semiconductors, switches, motors, testing equipment and scientific instruments. It also includes related manufacturing services.
Energy and Utilities
Energy production, distribution and storage, including fossil fuels, renewables, electric power companies, companies focused on energy efficiency and companies researching new energy sources or technologies.
Environmental Services and Equipment
These companies deal with repairing damage after an environmental event has occurred or aim to help limit the negative ecological impact of an event or company. This includes environmental and energy consulting, hazardous waste services, recycling, cleanup and solid waste.
Financial
Companies dealing with wealth in any form, including but not limited to: accounting, banking, credit and collections, investments, online payments companies and lending.
Food and Beverages
Food and drink of all kinds: retail and wholesale, fresh ingredients, prepared and canned items and foodservice (but not restaurants, see Leisure). Also includes food safety, flavoring and condiments, alcoholic products and distribution.
Healthcare
All aspects of medical care and wellness: diagnosis, drug development and distribution, medical products and facilities, healthcare plans, alternative treatments and elective procedures.
Industrial
Equipment and facilities that are neither commercial nor residential nor consumer, and all related applications. Mainly concerned with materials, facilities, heavy machinery and construction.
Internet
Online applications, but neither the hardware on which they are run nor the ISPs that make transactions possible. All ecommerce sites are included, as are web hosting services, browser software, online advertising, email, online communications platforms of all kinds, online learning, video and more.
Leisure
In-person entertainment like movie theaters, casinos, lodging, restaurants of all kinds, sporting events, gyms and recreation facilities.
Media (Traditional)
All forms of non-internet entertainment that is also not in-person (see Leisure). Includes film, video, music, publishing, radio and television.
Metals and Mining
Companies involved with extracting raw materials from the earth and their processing. Larger categories contained herein include aluminium, coal, copper, diamonds and precious stones, precious metals and steel. It also includes the brokering and distribution of these items.
Mobile and Telecommunications
Communications companies and associated technologies, from overarching categories like fiber optics, telecom equipment, infrastructure, towers and RFID systems to applications like mobile software, mobile commerce and the telecom companies that facilitate communication over their networks.
Retail (non-internet/mobile)
Brick-and-mortar retail locations of all kinds: clothes, electronics, appliances, physical media, grocery, office supplies and every other item purchased in person that is not a leisure activity (see Leisure).
Risk and Security
Security services and products that operate primarily in the physical world and encompass personal protective equipment, security and surveillance equipment, security guard companies, consultants and more.
Software (non-internet/mobile)
Software not covered under Mobile or Internet. It can be hosted on a user’s machine or accessed remotely and can be used for any application. In this category, the software itself is the user’s primary concern, not the delivery method (as in Internet and Mobile categories).
About our sector definitions
- Sector taxonomy (Sector > Industry > Subindustry) is a mutually exclusive, collectively exhaustive vertical classification. Each company can only have one vertical classification. Typically these indicate the market the company is selling to.
- Companies may utilize multiple emerging technologies / business models, regardless of what vertical they are selling to. For this reason, a company may be included in multiple Emerging Areas which are represented as “company collections” in the CB Insights website.
Round reporting
The following rounds are identified in the MoneyTree reporting: Seed / Angel, Series A, Series B, Series C, Series D, Series E+, Convertible Note, Growth Equity, and Private Equity.
Seed stage
Seed/Angel
Early stage
Series A
Expansion stage
Series B and C
Later stage
Series D and E+
Other
Includes rounds not associated with a specific stage in a company's funding history. These include corporate minority rounds where corporates take a minority stake in a startup, as well as a small number of unclassified rounds tracked that are not associated with a specific stage
The MoneyTree Report records cash for equity investments as the cash is actually received by the company (also called a tranch) as opposed to when financing is committed (often referred to as a "term sheet") to a company. Accordingly, the amount reported in a given quarter may be less than the total round amount committed to the company at the time when the round of financing closed.
Core-based statistical area (CBSA)
CBSA is a US geographic area defined by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) that "consists of one or more counties (or equivalents) anchored by an urban center of at least 10,000 people plus adjacent counties that are socioeconomically tied to the urban center by commuting."
Combined statistical area (CSA)
CSA is a classification the represents a combination (more than one) adjacent statistical areas in the United States and Puerto Rico that can demonstrate economic or social linkage. The classification is created by the OMB and reviewed after each census.
What is included:
- Equity financings into emerging companies. Fundings must come from VC-backed companies, which are defined as companies who have received funding at any point from either: venture capital firms, a corporate venture group or super angel investors.
- Fundings of only private companies. Funding rounds raised by public companies of any kind on any exchange (including Pink Sheets) are excluded from our numbers, even if they received investment by venture firms.
- Investment made in the quarter for tranched investments. If a company does a second closing of its Series B round for $5M and previously had closed $2M in a prior quarter, only the $5M is reflected in our results.
- What has closed–not what is intended. If a company indicates the closing of $5M out of a desired raise of $15M, our numbers reflect only the amount which has closed.
- Verifiable fundings only. Fundings are verified via (1) various federal and state regulatory filings, (2) direct confirmation with firm or investor, (3) press release or (4) credible media sources.
What is excluded:
- Contingent funding. If a company receives a commitment for $20M subject to hitting certain milestones but first gets $8M, only the $8M is included in our data.
- Business development or R&D arrangements—whether transferable into equity now, later or never. If a company signs a $300M R&D partnership with a larger corporation, this is not equity financing nor is it from venture capital firms. As a result, it is not included.
- Buyouts, consolidations or recapitalizations. All three of these transaction types are commonly employed by private equity firms and are tracked by CB Insights. However, they are excluded for the purposes of this report.
- No private placements. These investments, also known as PIPEs (Private Investment in Public Equities) are not included, even if made by a venture capital firm(s).
- Debt or loans of any kind (except convertible notes). Venture debt or any kind of debt or loan issued to emerging, startup companies—even if included as an additional part of an equity financing—is not included. If a company receives $3M with $2M from venture investors and $1M in debt, only the $2M is included in these statistics.
- Government funding. Grants, loans or equity financings by the federal government, state agencies or public-private partnerships to emerging, startup companies are not included.
Disclaimer
PricewaterhouseCoopers and CB Insights have taken responsible steps to ensure that the information contained in the MoneyTree Report has been obtained from reliable sources. However, neither PwC nor CB Insights can warrant the ultimate validity of the data obtained in this manner. Results are updated periodically. Therefore, all data is subject to change at any time.
Contact us
