Blockchain technology enjoyed a significant boost in early stage global venture funding (VC) in 2017, according to a recent analysis by GlobalData. The company confirmed that Blockchain technology start-ups attracted the most seed funding at 40% last year, indicating a growing preference for the sector by venture firms. However, Blockchain investments were limited to only a few stages, as the segment is still developing its potential.

“Blockchain technology start-ups are currently an attractive proposition for venture funding as we see the segment achieving 40% seed investment and over 50% in Series A and B funding in 2017,” said Jitesh Nair, Deals Analyst at GlobalData.

“Part of the reason for this is that Blockchain technology is continuing to find wider applications outside the financial services. Nearly 50% of all Blockchain technology seed rounds in 2017 were targeted at Blockchain technology start-ups aimed at consumer, defence and the media space markets,” he said.

The company's analysis on major technologies in the VC funding space also revealed that both the Security and Payment Technologies segments attracted similar levels of investment of over 60% in the growth stage and the lowest seed funding levels of 18%. With a 30% share of total global venture funding, Artificial Intelligence came second in seed funding rounds recorded in 2017.

Digital business remains the only segment to have received venture funding at both ends of investment spectrum. Overall, the companies involved in digital businesses as well as robotics & drones have recorded a notable spread of funding across all three stages – early, growth and late stage.

“These two sectors managed to attract seed stage funding of 29% and 22% respectively in 2017, and also received late stage funding of 15% and 19% respectively, indicating significant scope for startups and continued growth opportunities for existing players,” said Nair.