Chicago startups raised 36% less money in the third quarter compared to the same period a year ago, according to the latest PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor report.
The Chicago startups raised $791 million in the quarter that ended Sept. 30. They raised more than $1.23 billion during Q3 2021, according to the report.
PitchBook said 81 deals were done with Chicago startups last quarter, down from 101 in the same quarter in 2021. That's a decline of 20%.
Chicago startups raised a record-setting $7 billion 2021. It doesn't appear that they'll match that this year.
For the first nine months of the year, Chicago startups have raised $3.4 billion, down from over $5.5 billion over the same period a year ago. That’s a drop of 38%.
Nationwide, deal counts fell across all stages for the second consecutive quarter after reaching a record high in Q1 2022.
Total money invested reached a nine-quarter low with $43 billion invested across about 4,000 deals, according to PitchBook.
The nationwide pullback was most pronounced at the late stage, with 2022’s exit value on pace to fall below $100 billion for the first time since 2016.
Total dollars invested in late-stage venture capital decreased by 48% from the Q2 figure of $48 billion and set a record 11-quarter low.
One area where the VC slowdown was shown to be most pronounced was with IPO launches. Exits were down almost 50% against historical norms, a trend seen in the beginning of the year that has since become more pronounced as public listings have hit record lows.
In some sectors the slowdown was felt more than others. After record-high levels of funding and job growth for biotech companies, the Nasdaq Biotechnology Index, which tracks securities of Nasdaq-listed companies classified as either the biotech or the pharmaceutical industry, dropped 25% in the first half of 2022.
Maia Biotechnology was one of the few Chicago-based startups to go public this year, raising $10 million.
Maia Chairman and CEO Vlad Vitoc attributed the successful launch to the company’s drug THIO, which is designed to give cancer patients a new therapeutic treatment option. He also gave credit to having a robust balance sheet prior to launching.
Other Chicago exits included the Peerless Network and GeneTx. Peerless was bought out and GeneTx was acquired via a merger.
This year has produced 59 public listings across the nation, just one year after a record 303 VC-backed public listings generated $670 billion in exit value.
The frozen IPO market continued in Q3, with five companies exiting via traditional IPOs this quarter.
But there are some sectors — such as healthcare, clean tech, energy and transportation industries — in which deal counts are close to or above full-year numbers of 2020.
The PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor is a quarterly report produced by PitchBook and the National Venture Capital Association with support from Insperity and J.P. Morgan.
