Headquarters: Lake Mary
Money raised: $11 million
Closed/Announced: July
What they do: Offer cybersecurity services to high-net-worth individuals and corporate executives
Headquarters: Orlando
Money raised: $20 million
Closed/Announced: October
What they do: Enable restaurants to operate ghost kitchens and offer delivery-only food brands
Headquarters: Orlando
Money raised: $20 million
Closed/Announced: November
What they do: Maker of ultraviolet light-based disinfection products and ultraviolet light products for the agriculture industry
Headquarters: Maitland
Money raised: $20 million
Closed/Announced: April
What they do: Provider of endpoint cybersecurity tool
Headquarters: Orlando
Money raised: $20 million
Closed/Announced: May
What they do: Deployer and operator of autonomous shuttles across the U.S.
Headquarters: Orlando
Money raised: $31 million
Closed/Announced: July
What they do: Platform that enables companies to recruit for and carry out virtual clinical trials
Headquarters: Orlando
Money raised: $50 million
Closed/Announced: September
What they do: Kore.ai’s platform is used to build virtual assistants to automate online conversations with employees or customers
A potential record year for U.S. venture capital investments translated to big deals for metro Orlando startups.
Local early-stage companies raised $188.3 million in the first three quarters of 2021, according to the most recent data from PitchBook and the National Venture Capital Association. Since 2014, this year only trails 2020 and 2018 for the most money raised by local firms in that period. However, it lags the $267.9 million raised from January to September 2020. Last year ended with $325 million raised by metro Orlando companies, the most in a year since at least 2013, per the oldest data available from PitchBook and the National Venture Capital Association.
To review metro Orlando’s biggest venture capital deals of 2021, check out the slideshow above.
These deals matter because venture capital can fund companies as they scale up while also providing business expertise and industry connections. The growth of these companies in turn creates high-wage jobs and innovative solutions for local businesses and residents.
In fact, the year’s biggest investment deals have a direct effect on the local economy, including:
- Anuvia Plant Nutrients Corp. got its Plant City manufacturing facility to production mode thanks to a $103 million Series C round. The plant employs 65 people, and the company expects to hire 10-12 additional employees there next year.
- After a $20 million round, ThreatLocker Inc. expects to quadruple its workforce from 50 workers in October to 200 people in October 2022.
- Beep Inc.’s $20 million Series A round fuels the company as it deploys new self-driving shuttle routes in Georgia and Texas, as well as grow its workforce from more than 70 people to 100 employees by early 2022.
Nationwide, 2021 is on track to be a record year for venture capital investment, potentially surpassing the record-setting $156.2 billion invested in businesses in 2020. Investors have no shortage of money to deploy, and interest in innovative, tech-based solutions have shot up since the Covid-19 pandemic forced many jobs and interactions to go digital in 2020.
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