Seed and early stage startup funding deals were hot in the Bay Area in the first quarter, but five were clearly above the rest.
Each of the companies involved saw their valuations jump by at least 1,329% and they all hit valuations of $100 million or more. Three of them hit unicorn valuations of $1 billion or more in Series B rounds.
All five are software companies, with two of them involved in blockchain technologies.
Find out more about this elite group of companies — MinIO, Laguna Games, Watershed, Skael and Phantom — in the photo gallery above.
All of this happened at a time when PitchBook Data says that the average valuation jump for Bay Area startups valued at $100 million or more in the quarter was 318%. That would easily top last year's record full-year average jump of 218% if it keeps up.
There were 237 venture rounds that went to Bay Area companies valued at $100 million or more in the quarter, according to PitchBook. That tops the 224 such deals that happened in last year's first quarter.
But by the end of last year there was a record 1,335 funding rounds that went to Bay Area startups valued at $100 million or more. If the pace set in the first quarter continues, there would be 948 by the end of the year. That would be the second highest total ever.
Most big valuation jumps come early in a startup's history when they go from winning seed funding based on their ideas to Series A and Series B rounds as they prove there is a market for what they do.
This is also where venture investors appear to be focused at the moment as data released this week showed. Record amounts of seed and early stage funding went into Bay Area startups in the first quarter, thanks to a pair of big deals involving companies that arguably should top the ranking of "hottest companies" from Q1.
But one of them, Palo Alto-based Aptos Labs, hit a valuation of more than $1 billion in a $200 million seed funding only four months after it was founded. Since it was the blockchain startup's first venture round, there is no multiple that can be calculated on that jump.
The other one was a huge $3 billion early stage funding for anti-aging biotech startup Altos Labs Inc. in Redwood City. This time there was no valuation disclosed for the company's new round so, again, no valuation jump multiple can be deduced.
In any case, the big valuation boosts that went to the companies with the biggest valuation jumps and the record-boosting deals won by Altos Labs and Aptos Labs show that VCs remain willing to bet big on companies they think have a promising future.
