VC Investment in 2018 Surpassed Dot-Com Era; Here's How Mass. Startups Fared

Bookmark 2018, it's a milestone year for U.S.-based startups.

Last year the U.S. venture industry deployed $130.9 billion in startups across 8,948 deals, surpassing the all-time high in 2000, when that number stood at $105 billion.

In its Venture Monitor report for Q4 2018, Pitchbook said that 61.9% of total capital invested stemmed from deals sized $50 million or larger, where the median deal sizes and median valuations across all investment stages and series were higher.

Image Courtesy: Pitchbook

Additionally, last year, unicorn companies raised an aggregate of $44.5 billion in funding that accounted for 33.9% of total VC investment in 2018. Not just growth stage, but angel & seed stage investments also saw another strong year of capital investment, with deal value for the year settling near a decade high of $7.5 billion.

Image Courtesy: Pitchbook

Unsurprisingly, software startups saw a record level of capital investments. Software startups also saw a greater deal flow in 2018.

Image Courtesy: Pitchbook

Closer home, Mass.-based startups raised $12 billion across 660 deals in 2018. It's important to note, however, that Pitchbook's methodology includes venture capital investments in angel, seed, early-stage, late-stage and growth equity. The report doesn't include PE rounds like Cambridge Telematics' $500 million raise.

Some noteworthy fundraises for Boston startups in 2018 include:

For more roundups, go here and here.

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