After a big first quarter of venture capital funding for local startups, the Austin metro area had a slow second quarter. But 2019 is still pacing ahead of 2018.
In the second quarter, Austin area startups secured $325 million in funding across 54 deals, according to a new PitchBook and National Venture Capital Association breakdown. That's down about 52 percent from the first quarter, when local term sheets totaled $687.6 million on 70 deals.
Austin's second quarter tally is the lowest dollar amount raised since the fourth quarter of 2017, when the area logged $253.2 million across 71 deals, according to the data.
Looked at another way, the report shows Austin startups raised just over $1 billion in the first half of the year. During the first two quarters of 2018, local teams landed $858 million.
Austin's top 10 deals, as recorded in this data, included:
- FloSports - $47 million
- Lung Therapeutics - $36 million
- Arrive Logistics - $25 million
- Elligo Health Research - $20 million
- Austin Bertha - $16 million
- Vital Farms - $15 million
- Kerv - $11 million
- Coder - $10 million
- Atmosphere TV - $10 million
- Subjectwell - $10 million
The most active local venture firms during the quarter were, in order, Santé Ventures, LiveOak Venture Partners, Elsewhere Partners and Acacia Partners.
Nationally, VC investments in the first half of the year hit $66 billion -- on pace to hit the record levels we saw last year. But the story of Q2 was largely about exits. The second quarter of 2019 set a quarterly record with $138.3 billion in exit value -- bringing the total for the first half of the year to $188.5 billion.
And that could foreshadow future investment.
"This strong exit activity has produced strong distributions for LPs, who are recycling that capital into new VC funds," the report said.
While many people have projected a market correction or even a recession. The data points to continued growth and strong funding for startups.
“Robust exit activity continues to drive positive net cash flows to LPs and improve aggregate performance for the VC ecosystem,” John Gabbert, founder and CEO of PitchBook, said in a news release. “The unprecedented flood of newly liquid capital has already eclipsed every other annual exit value total, ensuring that 2019 will leave its mark as a pivotal year for the US VC industry.”
