Mirroring the national trend of venture capital deal-flow softening after a record year in 2021, Wisconsin companies had a strong first quarter in terms of venture capital financings but raised fewer VC dollars than in the same quarter last year.
Wisconsin companies raised $59 million across 25 venture capital deals in the first quarter, compared with $293 million across the same number of deals in same period in 2021 and $37 million across 30 deals in the first quarter of 2020, according to data from PitchBook Data Inc. and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA).
Delafield-based artificial intelligence data company Synthetaic closed the largest VC deal in the state last quarter, raising $13 million. It was followed by Milwaukee software consulting firm Penrod Inc., which raised $8 million and Green Bay's online chemical marketplace firm ChemDirect, which raised $6.59 million.
Nationally, venture capital funds invested $70.7 billion across 3,723 deals last quarter, compared with $77 billion across 4,282 deals in Q1 2021 and $38 billion across 3,430 deals in Q1 2020, according to the same data.
“Economic and geopolitical headwinds in the first quarter brought about change in the U.S. venture ecosystem after the constant upward trajectory of prior years,” PitchBook founder and CEO John Gabbert said in a statement Thursday.
The following is a list of the top venture capital deals for Wisconsin companies in the first quarter of 2022, according to the PitchBook/NVCA data.
The data did not include some first-quarter deals Wisconsin Inno previously reported, including the $3.1 million raised by Beloit's Blue Line Battery Inc., the nearly $1 million raised by Milwaukee battery materials startup COnovate and the $2 million raised by Madison's Quiver Quantitative Inc.
Synthetaic: $13 million
Delafield
Penrod: $8 million
Milwaukee
ChemDirect: $6.59 million
Green Bay
Medical Engineering Innovations: $6.47 million
Madison
Frontdesk: $4.01 million
Milwaukee
Virtual Benefits Administrator: $3 million
Germantown
CyteGen: $2.1 million
Shorewood
Web Finance Direct: $2 million
Onalaska
Zizzl: $1.98 million
Milwaukee
Attwill Medical Solutions: $1.71 million
Lodi
Renaissant: $1.07 million
Milwaukee
RehabPath: $750,00
Madison
Adventa Bioscience: $410,000
Lodi
Landmark Creamery: $312,500
Montrose
PRIMER: $175,000
Milwaukee
Spotz: $170,000
Madison
Linectra: $150,000
Middleton
Mpirik: $100,000
Milwaukee
