Seattle-area startups are still looking to catch up to recent peaks when it comes to venture capital funding.
According to new data from Seattle-based PitchBook Data and the National Venture Capital Association, local startups landed $711 million across 77 deals during the first quarter. The funding total was up nearly 14% from the first quarter of last year, when Seattle-area startups landed $626 million across 86 deals. Though the number of deals declined year over year, funding was up nearly 27% per deal.
During all of 2023, Seattle-area startups raised $3.4 billion across 373 deals, according to the first quarter PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor report. The region is far off the pace of 2022, when local startups raised $7.8 billion over 479 deals. In 2021, when the venture capital climate was even hotter, local startups raised $9.2 billion over 494 deals.
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In the report's executive summary, NVCA CEO Bobby Franklin called the current market a "defensive climate" as opposed to a "slow market."
"A defensive investment climate is distinguished by investors’ reduction in activity and focus on their existing portfolios in the face of relative abundance of demand and opportunities for new investments. This contrasts with a slow market, wherein demand for capital is minimal," Franklin wrote in the summary. "Investors seem to be circling their wagons and making sure their most promising companies are positioned for success before they make new bets."
Multiple local companies have raised nine-figure rounds in recent months. Seattle-based ProfoundBio raised a $112 million Series B round in February. Earlier this month, ProfoundBio announced plans to be acquired by Danish biotech giant Genmab for $1.8 billion in cash.
Seattle-based crypto startup Eigen Labs, meanwhile, raised $100 million from venture capital heavyweight Andreessen Horowitz in February. Seattle-based cybersecurity company ExtraHop landed $100 million from existing investors in January.
Nationally, there were 3,925 venture capital deals worth a total of $36.6 billion during the first quarter, according to the report. There were 15,580 deals worth $165.8 billion in all of 2023. U.S. startups landed $241.6 billion across 17,709 deals in 2022 and $349.5 billion across 19,078 deals in 2021, a record year.
