Local cannabis operator PharmaCann raised $94.7 million in April, an amount that stands as the largest funding round of the second quarter among Chicago's tech startups.
That's according to data from the PitchBook-National Venture Capital Association Venture Monitor report released Thursday.
The report noted that biotech company Advanced Medicine Partners landed the second-highest funding round of the quarter locally, at $60 million.
Formic Technologies Inc. also was represented in the report. CEO and co-founder Saman Farid said in an earlier conversation with Chicago Inno that he considered his company's most recent backing as an "A prime" round — with the company adding $27.4 million in Series A financing to a $26.5 million Series A raise in January 2022.
Other local companies highlighted in the PitchBook report include Clearcover, with $55 million in Q2 fundraising, and Hopscotch Primary Care, with $45 million.
PitchBook reported that local startups collectively raised $576 million across 78 deals in the three months ended June 30. That's down from $827 million raised by local startups across 103 deals in Q2 2023. It's also down from $850 million raised in Q1, the largest sum for a single quarter since $1.5 billion in Q4 2022, according to PitchBook. Those post-pandemic funding heydays brought nearly $7 billion to Chicago startups in 2021 and $10 billion in 2022, according to PitchBook data. That sum declined to $2.35 billion in 2023.
How the rest of the country fared
There were 31 exits listed in the Q2 report, two of which involved Chicago companies: Tempus AI and Tegus.
Exit value is pacing better than both 2022 and 2023, according to PitchBook, though the market still faces its lowest exit total since 2016.
Boston, Chicago, New York, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle and San Jose, California, were the only metropolitan areas with multiple exits listed for the quarter.
Nationally, startups led by female founders have been hit especially hard by the slower fundraising environment, raising $15.5 billion across 1,485 deals thus far this year. That compares to $44.9 billion raised in 2023 and $45.7 billion in 2022.
Nizar Tarhuni, vice president of institutional research and editorial at PitchBook, expects the market to continue to be challenging for VC fundraising and startups looking to raise capital, while Bobby Franklin, president and CEO at National Venture Capital Association, has a little rosier take.
"With steadily increasing deal values, especially across early stage investments, more first-time financings, and increased crossover investor participation, Q2 2024 was a good one for VC," Franklin said in a statement with the report.
