Dayton and Athens had the largest tech acquisitions in Ohio in 2021, a record-smashing year for venture capital deals and venture-backed companies nationwide.
Ohio tech companies raised a combined $2.4 billion in the year, double the $1.1 billion record set in 2020, according to the year-end Venture Monitor by PitchBook and the National Venture Capital Association. That's still less than 1% of the national total of $329.6 billion – which was nearly double the $167 million record set the year before.
"While many were bullish on the industry at the start of 2021, possibly no one predicted how remarkable the year would prove to be," the report said.
Central Ohio startups and older growth-stage companies dominated the state's funding totals, as Columbus Business First has reported. The total rose to $1.55 billion as of Dec. 31.
Two late deals listed in the PitchBook/NVCA fourth-quarter report have not previously been covered. Sermonix Pharmaceuticals Inc., a pharmaceutical company testing a drug's effectiveness against an otherwise treatment-resistant form of breast cancer, raised $40 million. Decade-old business analytics platform Prevedere Inc. earlier this month announced raising $25 million; it shows up as $16 million in PitchBook data based on a November regulatory filing. Representatives from the companies were not immediately available for comment.
A strong year for going public led to record value for exits of venture backed companies, the report said: $774 billion, of which $681.5 billion was due to IPOs or SPAC deals.
Dayton-based Oculii, AI software to improve radar, was acquired for $308 million in November by Silicon Valley's Ambarella Inc., the state's largest exit listed in the report. The next largest was Athens-based Stirling Ultracold, which has a Columbus sales office, in a stock deal valued at $234 million. The total of all Ohio exits with known values was $636 million, according to the report.
Large corporate investment funds, private equity and other investors new to the VC space drove the high-flying totals, a trend expected to continue this year, according to PitchBook/NVCA.
"The good news for entrepreneurs is that there is a deeper and wider pool of capital sources available to fund and scale the next generation of innovative companies," the report said.
Meanwhile, the pandemic-driven shift to teleconferencing instead of travel for pitches and deals appears to have staying power, it said. Challenges ahead are the same as in many industries: competition for workers and ongoing supply shortages, especially of microchips.
The PitchBook/NVCA report omits Cincinnati's two largest deals of 2021: $143 million to CinCor Pharm in October and $160 million to 80 Acres Farms in August, as reported by the Cincinnati Business Courier. Representatives of the trade group were not immediately available for comment. Adding them raises the Ohio total to $2.7 billion.
