A stealth-mode startup has raised $56 million that it's not yet publicized, one of three Central Ohio funding rounds in the third quarter.
Even as all three rounds were above national medians, the region's VC action is still slowing from from 2021's dizzying pace alongside the rest of the country.
Forge Biologics Inc.'s $90 million Series C in September was the largest in the quarter ended that month, according to the latest Venture Monitor report from PitchBook and the National Venture Capital Association.
Koloma Inc., a clean-energy startup with nothing on its website but a logo, raised $55.7 million in August, according to a regulatory filing that landed it in the PitchBook data. Incorporated in a Dublin office park last year, the company has had some job listings and hired a lobbyist on energy issues. A co-founder said it remains in stealth mode.
Those were the two largest rounds statewide as well, according to PitchBook. Only 433 of some 3,000 Q3 deals nationwide were greater than $50 million.
Acculon Energy Inc., a lithium-ion battery tech located within Ohio State University's SciTech building, raised $10 million in August toward a $15 million goal for a seed round, according to a regulatory filing. That round also has not closed.
Nationally, public offerings are at record lows, exits are down almost 50% from historical norms, VC investment totaled just $43 billion last quarter, the lowest point in more than two years. After two record years, the sector has settled to a "durable, positive trend," the report said.
Median deal sizes in the quarter ranged from less than $3 million for seed investments to $10 million for late-stage tech companies.
Of the three Central Ohio deals, two-year-old Forge was the only one considered late-stage. The Grove City biotech is developing gene therapies and also operates a manufacturing facility for the gene therapy industry.
Through the first nine months, Columbus-area startups have raised about $680 million, according to Columbus Inno's analysis of rounds to date including those not yet closed but reported to the Securities and Exchange Commission. That's not on pace to beat 2021's $1.4 billion.
Other rounds in the rest of Ohio for the quarter:
- Endera, logistics software company in Ottawa in northwest Ohio, $20 million.
- Diasome Pharmaceuticals, Cleveland diabetes drug developer, $17 million.
- Orange Grove Bio, a Cincinnati biotech investing and holding company, $17 million.
- ChampTitles, Cleveland blockchain startup, $13 million.
- Trailhead Biosystems, Cleveland-area biotech, $10 million.
- Innago, Cleveland-area real estate software maker, $8 million.
- Lazurite, Cleveland surgical system developer, $7 million.
VC firms grow massive nest egg
On the other side of the checkbook, U.S. venture firms have raised $150 billion in the first nine months of the year — already breaking 2021's full-year record high of $147 billion.
The firms collectively are holding more than $290 billion, the most dry powder ever on hand for the country's VC sector, according to the report.
More than 2,500 VC funds have closed since the beginning of 2020, which is about the same number of U.S. funds closed from all of 2006 through 2015, the report said.
However, the report's data omitted the $1 billion that Columbus-based Drive Capital LLC raised in two funds this July.
PitchBook's data analysts consider the fund still "open," meaning the firm is still raising money from limited partners, a spokeswoman said via email. Unlike rounds in startups, it does not include still-open funds in the report.
Drive, for its part, had announced the rounds closed. The reason for the discrepency was not immediately clear.
