Venture capital isn't the best option for many startups, but for some, building at scale before revenue starts flowing requires the support of risk-tolerant investors in early stages. Those bets can pay off big every once in a while – and the DMV has had its fair share of VC-backed success stories.
PitchBook has just published a report on the most valuable VC-backed companies in each state. In Virginia, it's Arlington's Endgame; in D.C., it's Vox Media; in Maryland, it's Fulton's IronNet Cybersecurity.
The rankings make for a good opportunity to track the funding stories for some of the area's capital-infused kingpins.
The first of two cybersecurity giants on the list, Virginia's Endgame was founded in 2008 and is now worth $465 million, according to the PitchBook, with $111 million raised in venture capital. It makes security systems that use machine learning to predict threats early in cyberattacks. The company's funding story began in 2010 with a $29 million Series A round led by Bessemer Venture Partners and Alexandria-based Columbia Capital. Then D.C.'s Paladin Capital Group joined the race in 2013 to lead a $27 million Series B round, which was followed just over a year later with a $30 million injection. Its latest equity deal was a $10 million raise that closed in October 2016.
Next is Maryland's IronNet Cybersecurity, which was founded in 2014 and is now worth $578 million. The cyber tech startup took a quicker route to nine-digit funding, having raised a total $110 million in two rounds. First was a $32 million Series A round in late 2015 led by ForgePoint Capital, followed by a whopping $78M Series B round in May this year led by London's C5 Capital.
Finally, we'll veer away from hacker defense and into the publishing business, with D.C.'s Vox Media – worth $1.1 billion with $308 million in capital raised. It started in 2008 with an undisclosed venture round with six funders, including local investor Ted Leonsis. Early-stage rounds led by California VC firm Accel netted Vox a combined $13 million in 2009, followed the next year by a $10.5 million raise. In 2013 Accel came back for a $34 million investment, which was overshadowed the following year by a $46 million raise led by growth equity firm General Atlantic – getting Vox out of VC territory. The company's latest funding, in 2015, gave it plenty of runway – NBCUniversal came in for a $200 million investment.
