The city of Atlanta saw a major jump in investment dollars in 2017, pulling in a whopping total of $1.2 billion and 66 deals compared to 57 deals and $6.7 million in 2016.
But the first quarter of 2018 appears to have a slight slowdown from the year before at nine deals and a total amount of $10.7 million invested, a trend that appears to be happening nationwide, according to a recent MoneyTree Report created by PricewaterhouseCoopers and CB Insights.
The largest VC investments in the city during the first quarter of 2018 were with Groundfloor, a tech startup that allows customers to invest in real estate loans at a low entry point, at $4.3 million, Volantio, a technology services company focused on asset utilization and customer experience for airlines, at $2.6 million, Emcien, a predictive analytics software firm, at $2.5 million and Springbot, an eCommerce marketing automation platform, at $1 million.
Throughout the state, a total of 13 deals have closed in the first quarter of the year for a total investment of $27.2 million. A majority of investment dollars in 2017 went to later-stage companies, though no investments were collected for later-stage firms in this first quarter.
Companies in Internet and software sectors were also the top invested sectors across the state. The biggest VC deals in the state this past quarter were two internet firms, FSLogix based out of Suwanee and SaaSOptics in Peachtree Corners.
Georgia was ranked No. 15 out of states in the country with the highest number of VC investments in the first quarter of the year, but was ranked No. 27 for total dollar amount.
Across the country, there was an increase of funding in VC-backed companies with a large number of mega-rounds contributing to the growth this quarter, according to the MoneyTree data.
However, deal activity, much like what's occurred in Atlanta, has declined by about 2 percent in Q1'18. The states in the southeast completed 58 deals and $807 million total.
Internet and software companies were one of the top 5 sectors with the highest investments and number of deals in the county for this quarter as well.
Internet and software firms raked in the highest funding amount in 2017, for a total of $1.07 billion combined or roughly 86 percent of all investments in the city that year. This year is shaping up to follow suit, with already $6.1 million invested in internet companies.
Georgia has seen a significant growth of investment deals and dollars invested from 2016 to 2017, jumping from 74 deals to 83 deals and $7.9 million to $1.7 billion.
In the third and fourth quarter of 2017, the state was ranked No. 5 and No. 6 for total VC amounts.
