The funding frenzy continues. Here’s who raised the most in Q3.

Larger rounds. More deals. More investors putting money into D.C.-area startups.

It’s the trend we’ve seen in Greater Washington so far in 2021 that’s also playing out across the country. And investors kept it up through the third quarter.

The region counted $1.32 billion in total venture funding across 63 deals from July through September, according to the most recent PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor report, published each quarter by data firm PitchBook and the National Venture Capital Association with support from Silicon Valley Bank and Affinity. It’s a dramatic jump from the third quarter of 2020, when the region’s venture-backed companies secured $484.55 million across 68 deals.

But it’s a slight decline from the second quarter of 2021, which ultimately saw $1.38 billion among 79 deals. Those are the latest figures for the second quarter; when the Q2 report came out, the numbers sat a bit lower at $1.27 billion in total funding across 72 deals. It’s worth noting this is a snapshot of ever-evolving data and not a conclusive, all-encompassing report.

A handful of companies crossed the $100 million threshold for a single round: D.C. student loan startup MPower Financing, Gaithersburg biotech Sirnaomics Inc., Arlington risk management startup Interos Inc., McLean identity management startup ID.me and District clean energy startup Arcadia among them.

Check out the gallery above to see the top venture deals for the third quarter of 2021, per the PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor report released Thursday.

The third quarter continued the momentum that opened the year. The $1 billion-plus in VC dollars for the first quarter was the highest in at least a decade — before it was topped by Q2. Some of the deals that contributed to that influx in the first half of 2021 included D.C. fast-casual restaurant chain Cava with $190 million, Gaithersburg biopharma Arcellx with $115 million, and Bethesda health-tech startup Aledade Inc. with $100 million.

Similar trends are playing out on a national scale, with fundraising records already broken for the year. Companies across the U.S. secured $82.8 billion across 3,518 deals in the third quarter — $238.7 billion nationally for the first nine months of 2021. Of that, $49.5 billion went to rounds of $100 million or more — nearly doubling the $76.7 billion invested in these so-called “mega-rounds” in 2020, according to the report. A total of 597 deals across the country have reached at least $100 million this year, with 207 alone closing in the third quarter.

On the opposite end of the funding spectrum, seed-level and angel investments on the national stage have reached roughly 5,000 rounds and crossed $11 billion in deal value throughout 2021. Younger companies often struggle to secure those early, critical dollars for growth.

“Many VC investors argue that venture is undergoing a fundamental shift when it comes to deal sizes and valuations,” the report reads. “The accelerated pace of investments has spurred frenzied competition among investors to identify and fund promising early-stage startups.”

The report also notes that an increasing number of crossover investors, or those that are active in the public and private markets, have been making investments earlier in a company's growth stage over the last year. And that, it says, “has pushed deal sizes upwards and skewed the distribution of deal sizes toward the larger end.”

Nearly half of all early-stage venture capital deals this year have been greater than $10 million, according to the data.

Greater Washington is simultaneously seeing venture capital firms raising new funds to further feed the local ecosystem. During the third quarter, that roster comprised Arlington’s Sands Capital with $560 million, Alexandria’s QED Investors with $550 million, D.C.’s Core Capital Partners with $155 million, Reston’s OurCrowd with $132 million and D.C.’s Zeal Capital Partners with $62 million, per the report.

At its current pace nationally, the report reads, “VC fundraising activity will easily break the $100 billion mark in new capital, an aggregate total that was unfathomable until now.”

“With more investors chasing deal flow — and solo capitalists able to make investment decisions without the input of other partners — entrepreneurs can ink deals far more quickly than they have in the past,” Rob Freelen, head of venture capital relationship management at Silicon Valley Bank, said in a statement.