More than $1 billion in funding in fiscal year 2021 was funneled into startups and growing companies with ties to Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures, the tech commercialization arm of Johns Hopkins University.
More than $760 million in venture capital and more than $490 million in public equity financing was brought in by over 170 startups during the fiscal year that ended June 30, Tech Ventures noted in its newly released annual report. Roughly $30 million in funding was raised by student-led ventures. Those figures show significant growth from fiscal 2020, during which Tech Ventures startups raised nearly $300 million in funding, with student-led ventures raising about $24 million.
The growth fits with broader national and local trends of record-setting venture capital and public exit levels among startups over the past year and a half, despite the economic challenges presented by the global Covid-19 pandemic. And startups with Hopkins ties have contributed significantly to the highest-ever and still-expanding amounts of capital being raked in across Maryland and Baltimore. For example, the Tech Ventures report highlights that three Hopkins spinouts in particular, all specializing in cancer diagnostics, raised mega-deals in fiscal 2021, or venture deals worth $100 million or more.
- Thrive — an Exact Sciences company, which is headquartered in Massachusetts but has offices in Baltimore, raised a $257 million Series B last July (this was Thrive's second mega-deal in two years)
- Delfi Diagnostics in Baltimore closed a $100 million Series A round in January
- Personal Genome Diagnostics (PGDx), also headquartered in Baltimore, raised a $103 million Series C round in February
The report also mentioned a handful of significant Tech Ventures exits, all of which brought returns back to Hopkins and Baltimore, to be reinvested for other growing ventures.
- Thrive was acquired by publicly traded diagnostics firm Exact Sciences Corp. for up to $2.15 billion, shortly after raising its huge Series B round
- Allakos Inc., a biotech firm in California, raised $271 million in public funding through an offering last fall
- NexImmune Inc., a clinical stage biotech in Gaithersburg, hosted a $126.5 million initial public offering in February
In a message to stakeholders about the report, Christy Wyskiel, executive director of Tech Ventures, said the pandemic made the 2021 year "unusual" overall. However, the Tech Ventures team "took full advantage of the momentum that had been building prior to the pandemic" to keep up the growth pace.
Other notable takeaways from the fiscal 2021 report include that Tech Ventures received 402 reports of invention, slightly above the annual average. A report of invention occurs when someone within the Hopkins network invents something and then reports it to Tech Ventures. Growing companies also brought in about $40 million in licensing revenue, or income earned on technologies licensed from Hopkins.
Comparatively, Tech Ventures saw 464 reports of invention in fiscal 2020, and its companies brought in about $27 million in licensing revenue.
