Retail tech deals broke the 1,000 mark to reach an all-time high in Q3’21, up 31% YoY and marking a fifth consecutive quarter of deal growth. 

Investment slipped by 5% QoQ, but Q3'21 still saw the second-biggest quarter ever in global retail tech funding with $27.9B raised.

Funding to US retail tech startups in 2021 so far has increased 35% vs. all of 2020.

Q3’21 funding trailed Q2’21 by 12%, but the quarter still saw big rounds to US-based e-commerce companies like online marketplace PatPat and Amazon brand aggregator unybrands.

Q3’21 added 21 retail unicorns, bringing the total number of billion-dollar private retail companies to 167 — an all-time high. 

Of that total, Asia accounts for 73 unicorns — including companies like Kurly in South Korea — followed by the US with 63.