Yesterday, Pitchbook released its datagraph depicting Boston’s 2015 investment activity in a nutshell. Some information was to be expected, but other tidbits may suggest an intriguing change in our startup ecosystem worth noting. Particularly in terms of who’s investing in our city.
It’s become accepted that Boston does biotech and pharmaceuticals right. So the Earth didn’t shatter when Pitchbook pointed out that the highest amount of capital invested in Boston in 2015 went to companies in this sector. Through 91 deals, $2.1 billion was invested in biotech and pharma businesses. The software sector came in second, as 160 deals were closed totalling up to $1.6 billion in invested capital.
Now the data revealing the most active Boston investors last year is where things get interesting. While some names on the top of the list were norms, such as Atlas Venture (#2 most active) and General Catalyst Partners (#3), organizations that aren’t technically investment firms also showed up. The most active investor in Boston for 2015 was MassChallenge, while Northeastern’s venture accelerator IDEA came in 5th.
While these two organizations may not be investing the most money in Boston startups, the fact that they’re backing so many ventures in our area is noteworthy. It seems like a testament to our local startup culture in that our accelerators are heavily involved in supporting ventures in all aspects - workspace, mentors and money.
Image via Pitchbook.
