Tech companies in the state of Illinois raised nearly $2 billion in venture capital funding in 2017, the most the state has seen since 2000.
Illinois companies raised over $1.8 billion last year, an increase from the $1.1 billion in venture capital local startups raised in 2016, according to a PwC/CB Insights MoneyTree Report. In Chicago, tech companies raised nearly $1.6 billion, which is almost double the $850 million city tech companies raised in 2016, according to the report.
While funding amounts were higher in 2017, deal volume was slightly down. There were 140 VC deals in Illinois last year, down from 146 in 2016. In Chicago, there were 113 deals, down from 118 in 2016.
Large deals tend to make up a majority of yearly venture funding reports. In fact, Illinois' top 15 VC deals made up more than 60 percent of the state's total venture funding in 2017.
The largest deal was Outcome Health, which raised around $500 million in May, valuing the company at more than $5 billion. However, Outcome's good fortune was short lived once it was reported that the company misled advertisers on the effectiveness of its ads. Outcome is being sued by its investors, which include Goldman Sachs and Alphabet, for fraud.
The most venture funding recorded for Illinois startups was in 2000, at the height of the dot com boom, when companies raised more than $2.8 billion. The bust that followed resulted in 2002's low of just $83 million in VC funding for Illinois companies.
