The two biggest funding rounds for Columbus tech startups so far this year came in the second quarter, even as investment sizes are shrinking across the country.
HomeTown Ticketing Inc., which runs digital ticketing for some 200,000 school and state athletics events, raised $75 million in April from Nexa Equity, according to a news release. Quickly growing since a 2019 relaunch, the Columbus company is using proceeds to add tech features and meet customer demand.
Then came the year's largest round to date – $147 million for Branch Insurance in June at a unicorn valuation of $1.05 billion. That Series C was led by Weatherford Capital.
These were growth-stage rounds for companies generating revenue, and both made by private equity firms.
For a sense of perspective, the nationwide median VC round for late-stage companies was $14 million and the average $43 million through the first half of the year, according to a preview of the Q2 Venture Monitor from PitchBook and the National Venture Capital Association. That report specifically measures venture capital and not PE – but even PE deals got off to a "tepid" start, according to their earlier Q1 report on that sector.
Investors are more cautious this year after shattering records in 2021, according to PitchBook/NVCA. While some 1,400 VC deals announced so far this year are at the same pace of last year's deal counts, the size of each round "has declined rather significantly across all stages."
"The outsized deals that became a theme of 2021 are not being completed as investors take a more cautious approach," the preview said. Venture Monitor will soon release more detailed local data, as well as a separate report on PE.
HomeTown Ticketing has built a customer base of 12,000 K-12 schools and colleges, 55 athletic conferences, and 17 state associations eager for a simple ticketing process that's cashless and touchless.
"HomeTown continues to transform the way our organization operates," Kim Kiehl, COO of the Ohio High School Athletic Association, said in the release. "Since adopting HomeTown, the OHSAA has seen great savings in event management costs, reduced hundreds of hours of manual operations time, and been provided with valuable data to better manage our business across our 26 sports and 6,354 events annually."
Its primary competitor is Eventbrite, the company previously told Columbus Business First, but HomeTown is tailored specifically for events such as Friday night football games, dances, concerts and school plays.
"HomeTown's platform completely changed the way events are managed by solving a critical pain point for school administrators and event coordinators," Vlad Besprozvany, Nexa founder and managing partner, said in the release.
San Francisco-based Nexa, focused on middle-market software makers, was founded just over a year ago by Besprozvany and a team who followed him from Insight Partners. HomeTown is one of four portfolio companies so far.
"We decided to partner with Nexa Equity because of their experience, enthusiasm, and proven track record of scaling vertical-specific software companies," HomeTown CEO Ryan Hart said in the release. Company officials were not immediately available for comment.
