Venture capital activity in the Seattle area is still running far below the pace of the last two years, according to Seattle-based financial data firm PitchBook Data and the National Venture Capital Association.
Their second quarter Venture Monitor report noted Seattle-area startups landed $700 million across 100 deals over the last three months. Deals were up from the first quarter, when there were 71 locally, but investment volume was the same: just $700 million. That means the average investment per deal fell 29% from the previous quarter.
Last year, Seattle-area startups landed $7.8 billion across 479 deals. In 2021, startups reaped $9.2 billion across 494 deals. At the current pace, local companies would finish the year with $2.8 billion across 342 deals.
"This shift in the landscape has impacted all sectors and stages of the venture ecosystem with deals, exits, and fundraising all well below the high-water marks set in the past few years," the report said. "Startups are cutting costs and pursuing revenue generation wherever possible to increase runway and reduce the need to raise rounds, which are increasingly structured and often flat or down."
There have still been some notable funding rounds this quarter by Seattle-area startups. Seattle-based health care tech company DexCare, for example, raised a $75 million Series C round in June. Tukwila-based fusion energy startup Avalanche Energy, meanwhile, raised a $40 million Series A round in April.
Still, some of the area's most prominent startups have laid off employees in recent months, including companies valued at more than $1 billion like interviewing startup Karat and freight network startup Convoy. On Wednesday, Rad Power Bikes confirmed it was shutting down its European operations and laying off about 40 employees.
When Seattle-based mentoring and networking startup OwnTrail was acquired by the job search tool Teal in June, OwnTrail co-founder and CEO Rebekah Bastian didn't sugarcoat the current funding environment.
"This is not how or when I wanted to land the plane. I wanted it to be a rocket ship and go to the moon. And I still truly believe that, with the right resources, it could have been," Bastian wrote in a blog post announcing the deal. "Despite just having completed Techstars, having a robust product that people love, a clear vision for what to do next and the dream team to do it, the funding just wasn’t there."
Nationally, there have been 8,195 deals worth $85.6 billion through the second quarter of this year. There were 18,610 deals worth $246.3 billion nationally in 2022 and 18,798 deals worth $346 billion in 2021, which set a record.
