Greater Philadelphia startups far surpassed funding records in 2021, with local companies raising $8.1 billion — more than the record set the previous year, according to the latest PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor report.
The previous record, set in 2020, was $2.7 billion. Last year's $8.1 billion funding was amassed across 441 deals. The boon in VC dollars comes as the United States reports a standout year for startup investment.
Nationally, VC-backed companies raised a total of $329.9 billion in 2021. That is close to double the record $166.6 billion in capital raised in 2020, according to PitchBook. Deals picked up across all stages of startups, from seed to late-stage unicorns, and “mega rounds” topping $100 million reached an all-time high last year.
Just a handful of companies accounted for Greater Philadelphia's top VC deals in 2021, as some startups raised multiple venture-backed rounds during the year and others brought in mega rounds.
Topping the list was Gopuff, which raised a total of $3.65 billion across three deals. The three capital raises put the Philadelphia-based delivery company’s valuation at $40 billion, according to PitchBook, more than quadrupling it’s March valuation of $8.9 billion. The startup’s latest $1.5 billion deal is being structured as a “Series X” convertible note provided by Guggenheim Partners, TechCrunch reported. Gopuff is rumored to be gearing up for an initial public offering sometime this year.
Misfits Market also raised a considerable amount of venture capital across two rounds, bringing in a total of $425 million. The online grocery startup’s valuation reached $2 billion after raising a $225 million Series C-1 in September.
Rounding out the top local deals were Wilmington, Delaware-based NiKang Therapeutics, which raised $200 million in an oversubscribed seed round in May; Amsterdam-based Accel Club, which is incorporated in Delaware and raised $170 million; Philadelphia-based Century Therapeutics’ $160 million equity financing round in March; and fast-growing Philadelphia software startup dbt Labs’ $150 million Series C.
Philadelphia-area life sciences companies alone raised more than $1.1 billion during 2021.
Some life sciences startups went public to get more growth capital. Cell therapy company Century Therapeutics had a $242.65 million IPO in June. Three other local life sciences startups — Lava Therapeutics, Vallon Pharmaceuticals and Virpax Pharmaceuticals — raised a combined $136 million through IPOs last year.
Notable deals for Philadelphia-area companies in the fourth quarter include:
- Belong Health - The Philadelphia-based health insurance tech startup raised a $40 million Series A round to hire, boost sales and marketing and improve the company’s tech platform.
- Circonus - Malvern data tech startup Circonus raised a $10 million Series B to double its staff and scale the platform.
- Crossbeam - The software-as-a-service startup, helmed by serial founders Bob Moore and Buck Ryan, raised a $76 million Series C led by Andreessen Horowitz to improve its technology, as well as privacy and security best practices.
- Go - Car subscription service Go raised a $41.25 million seed round — one of the largest early-stage rounds raised this year — to buy a fleet of cars and launch in markets across Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Florida.
- Microshare - The Philadelphia-headquartered smart building tech startup raised a $15 million round in November. The company develops sensors that track factors like building occupancy, environmental monitoring, contact tracing and indoor asset zoning.
Greater Philadelphia outraised several other startup hubs throughout the U.S., including the Seattle-Tacoma metro (which raised $8 billion last year), the Austin-Round Rock metro (where startups brought in $4.9 billion), the Chicago-Naperville metro ($7 billion) and the Denver-Aurora metro ($6.1 billion). The Philadelphia-Reading-Camden metro was only outraised by Silicon Valley, New York, Los Angeles and Boston, each of which brought in upward of $34 billion.
PitchBook anticipates that continued strong performance of VC portfolios and interest from nontraditional investors — such as corporate VC funds, hedge funds, private equity firms and sovereign wealth funds — will continue to propel momentum for startup funding.
“The good news for entrepreneurs is that there is a deeper and wider pool of capital sources available to fund and scale the next generation of innovative companies,” PitchBook wrote.
