While 2019 may have been a year of growth for the Tampa Bay startup community, 2020 forced every industry — especially, those in the startup world — to re-evaluate.
"2020 is unique due to the Covid-19 pandemic and resulting global economic and financial crisis, which have spared no one, including the southeastern investment and startup communities," a BIP Capital report states. "However, as noted in last year’s report, we believe that the Southeast’s persistent maturation positions it well to emerge from the crisis with momentum."
BIP Capital released its annual "State of Startups in the Southeast" report on Wednesday, which breaks down the deals and deal sizes from each of the nine states in the Southeastern region.
Tampa Bay Inno rounded up some of the key takeaways. Florida's top three industries, based on the number of investments brought in, include:
• Media bringing in $3.3 billion in investments. It's important to note Magic Leap, the Plantation-based augmented reality company that has taken a hit in 2020, raised $2.3 billion of that total number.
• Software as a service, or SaaS companies, raised $1.74 billion
• Biotech/pharma raised $1.23 billion
Since 2015, $9.7 billion has been invested across 2,460 deals in Florida, compared to the $34.5 billion spanning 9,543 deals in the Southeast. Across the wider region, the top areas of investment closely mimic Florida: media ranks first, with $6 billion in investments. SaaS, follows closely behind with $5.9 billion in investments, and biotech/pharma garnered $5.7 billion in investments.
In 2020 the region had $3.3 billion invested across 639 deals in the Southeast.
Tampa Bay came out on top in both venture capital fund deals completed and incubator companies that received funding:
• In 2020, Tampa-based Florida Funders ranked No. 1 among Florida's venture capital funds, completing 48 investment deals. It was followed by Orlando-based DeepWork Capital with 19 deals and Delray Beach-based Beresford Ventures with 16 deals.
• Tampa-based Tampa Bay Wave had the most deals for its companies, with 36 investments completed, according to the report. Orlando's Starter Studio had 23 deals and Techstars had 22 deals.
• The region faltered with angel investors. Miami Angels invested in 32 deals, with Boca Raton-based New World Angels completing 16 deals and Naples-based Tamiami Angels completing 10 deals.
• Tampa Bay made the top three when it came to startups in government-backed entities receiving funding.
University of Central Florida Business Incubator had 59 investment deals for its companies, leading the pack. StartUP FIU, based at Florida International University in Miami, had 38 deals. The Florida Institute for the Commercialization of Public Research, based in Tampa, closely followed with 36 investments completed.
"On a macro level, as we’ve reported before, we see the total number of deals in the Southeast stabilizing over the past five years," the report said. "However, the total capital invested continues to increase over the period studied. This tells us that the average check size per deal has climbed substantially and that the number of deals completed with rounds sized less than $1 million continues to decline. Not surprisingly, we see a sharp decline in the first half of 2020 in terms of the number of deals completed."
Out of 235 unicorns, or private companies valued at over $1 billion, six of them are in the Southeast with two residing in Florida:
• Fanatics, valued at $6.2 billion, is based in Jacksonville.
• Magic Leap: $4.8 billion, based in Plantation.
• Epic Games, $17.3 billion, based in Cary, North Carolina.
• avidxchange, $2.4 billion, based in Charlotte.
• Kabbage: $1.2 billion from a recent exit and based in Atlanta.
• Rubicon, $1.1 billion, based in Atlanta.
• pendo, $1 billion, based in Raleigh.
