Here's how much venture capital has cooled off in Central Ohio: The largest fourth-quarter fundraising round credited to the area in the latest PitchBook data is only half finished – and only half based in Columbus.
Basking Biosciences Inc., founded by researchers from both Ohio State and Duke universities, has raised $27 million toward a $55 million goal, according to a November SEC filing. PitchBook credited the entire amount to the fourth quarter, although the startup has not announced the closing of the round and is not commenting.
The more than $600 million acquisition of Forge Biologics Inc. in Grove City, completed in December, was the third-largest exit in the country for the fourth quarter of 2023, according to the year-end Venture Monitor from PitchBook and the National Venture Capital Association.
VC investing nationwide returned to pre-pandemic levels in 2023, the report said. The $170.6 billion invested in tech companies was slightly less than in 2020 but half of the dizzying $348 billion in 2021.
"While the continued drop in activity does not lend itself to optimism, it would be a mistake to declare the market in crisis. Rather, the market has changed," NVCA CEO Bobby Franklin said in the report's introduction. "From interest rates to foreign conflict, the world looks very different than it did two years ago, and a new set of problems needs to be solved for."
Ohio accounted for 0.7% of the U.S. total investment and 1.4% of deals – about the same as the past five years, never higher than 0.9%, according to Columbus Inno's analysis of the report data. The total of $1.27 billion was even with the state totals in 2018 and '19.
Inno's total does not include $61 million that PitchBook attributed to a Cleveland startup for the fourth quarter, because the company made a series of filings reflecting rounds dating back to 2015.
That leaves the unfinished Basking round the top for the state in the quarter, with asterisks. Basking's CEO is based in Research Triangle Park in North Carolina, but the chief medical officer is an OSU vascular surgeon. He and his Duke counterpart are developing an RNA-based reversible treatment to open blocked arteries in a stroke, or reverse it to stop bleeding. The company, which reported positive data from a safety trial last year, has an office at investor Rev1 Ventures' startup studio on Kinnear Road.
The other Central Ohio rounds in the data are the $50 million toward a $100 million goal that West Jefferson-based AmplifyBio reported in an SEC filing – another round not yet closed, and the $20 million round closed by Columbus-based Matic Insurance Services Inc. were the only other deals from the region listed in the data.
