Venture Capital investment in the Portland metro surpassed $1 billion in 2021, doubling the amount raised in 2020 and surpassing historic amounts raised in 2019.
Last year, $1.30 billion was invested across 138 deals in the Portland metro, according to the latest data from Seattle research firm Pitchbook and the National Venture Capital Association. For the state of Oregon a total of $1.64 billion was invested across 165 deals.
The data from the latest edition of the Venture Monitor report comes as little surprise as 2021 saw huge quarterly amounts raised. For the Portland metro area, no quarter last year saw less than $250 million invested. It was a similar story statewide. Almost all of the largest deals of the year were in later-stage companies.
The local uptick in investing follows national trends. Last year saw a record $329.9 billion invested across 17,054 deals. Exit activity was also up last year nationally with $681 billion realized through public listings, according to the report. Locally, 2021 was an unusually busy time for public listings with several IPOs taking place as well as two SPAC mergers.
“By all metrics, 2021 was a banner year for the U.S. VC ecosystem,” said John Gabbert, founder and CEO of PitchBook in a written statement. “A fair portion of the new investment records can be attributed to the record levels of capital washing through the system. VC dry powder at an all-time high and a rapidly growing number of crossover investors are participating in, or even leading, VC deals. With VC returns outpacing every other private capital asset class, we expect LPs to continue to allocate capital toward venture at unprecedented rates in the coming year.”
However, not all the national news was good. Despite industrywide discussions on investing in women, all-women founding teams pulled in just 2% of the total invested nationwide, or just $6.4 billion. For companies that have at least one woman founder the numbers are slightly better at 17.3%.
Want more Portland startup news? Sign-up for The Beat delivered to your inbox twice weekly
That the numbers for women founders were still so low was not a huge surprise to Nitin Rai of Elevate Capital. The Portland-based firm invests in women and other underrepresented founders in early-stage companies across the country. Last year it deployed $12 million with 65% of that into women founders.
When he talks to the women he backs he said he still hears how difficult it is to get checks, especially for women of color. He said that 35% of Elevate’s investment last year went to Black women.
The majority of funds still won’t take the risk needed to go against the status quo of who gets investment, according to Rai.
“Funds need to take the risk. If you don’t take the risk you never invest in the people you said you would support,” he said. “The status quo is pattern matching, so to go against the status quo you have to take that risk.”
For the fourth quarter, the Portland metro area saw $334.6 million invested across 24 deals. Statewide, $637.2 million was invested across 37 deals.
Some of the top deals in the metro for the quarter were:
- Vancouver-based fintech Embed raised $60 million.
- Portland-based health care startup Brave Care raised $25 million.
- Portland-based software maker AskNicely raised $32 million.
- Vancouver-based children’s emotional education brand Slumberkins raised $12 million.
- Portland-based The Dyrt raised $11 million.
Perhaps the biggest surprise was the largest round raised in the fourth quarter in the Portland metro. On-demand staffing software maker Wonolo, which had previously been billed as San Francisco-based, emerged with a Beaverton headquarters. The company says it is fully remote and has teams in several cities. Its mailing address is Beaverton and it has a handful of employees in Oregon. The company raised $140 million in October.
Statewide, the largest deal in the quarter was the $350 million raised by Bend-based cannabis industry software maker Dutchie. That accounted for more than half the total invested in the state in the quarter.
Here’s how 2021 compares to the last two years. For the Portland metro $650 million was raised in 2020 across 108 deals; in 2019, $983.1 million was raised across 115 deals.
Statewide, 2021 also surpassed the last two years. In 2020, across Oregon $757.6 million was invested across 134 deals. In 2019, across Oregon $979.2 million was invested across 147 deals.
