The top 10 Richmond startup funding rounds of Q1

Richmond area startups raised a total of $22.5 million in venture capital during the first quarter of the year, according to a new report by the National Venture Capital Association and PitchBook.

That's an increase from Q4 of last year, when local startups raised about $21.5 million. But it was down compared to Q1 of 2019, when the ecosystem saw $28.9 million in new deals.

As we all know, Q1 of this year was unlike any other, as a pandemic circled the globe and caused shutdowns, supply chain problems and a dramatic fall off in all kinds of business activity. Most of that disruption isn't reflected in the Q1 venture funding report.

"The likely prospect of a serious recession looming (if it has not already begun) has critically affected the health of the startup ecosystem," the report said. "The IPO market has rapidly fizzled out, and it’s possible that the M&A market could see hits as well, as large potential acquirers are also cutting costs."

Meanwhile, early-stage funding has been at record levels in the past couple years, and the report's authors say they expect deal terms to shift back in favor of investors and cut into startup valuations.

"We expect knock-on effects in deal activity to come in the next several quarters as early-stage startups focus on managing burn rates and extending cash runways," they wrote.

But the NVCA and PitchBook said VCs still have money to deploy, and it said that traditionally a down economy has proven to be a good time for startup investing since startups become more capital efficient and are driven more to succeed.

Here are the top 10 Richmond metro area funding deals from Q1:

Here are the top 10 funding rounds in the state of Virginia from Q1: