D.C. has taken note from the rest of the nation and slowed investment deals in Q3, according to two recent reports.
The Pitchbook-NVCA Venture Monitor's tally for the D.C. metro area counted 45 deals and $399 million in third-quarter venture capital activity.
That falls short of recent quarterly funding totals, including a record Q2 with $438 million invested across 64 deals in Pitchbook's report. It's also short of last year's third quarter report from Pitchbook, which brought in $452 million across 50 deals on the way to a record year of investments in the region.
Another report, PwC MoneyTree, counted 27 deals in Q3 totaling $246 million invested in the D.C. region. Its tally does not include some ongoing funding rounds that are included in the Venture Monitor.
The dip follows a national decline in startup investments. According to MoneyTree, U.S. VC-backed companies raised $26 billion in Q3, which is a 15% decline compared to Q2. The 1,305 deals done in Q3 2019 also dipped from the 1,528 deals done in Q3 2018.
Despite the slow down, 2019 is on track to have a sizable year nationally, even compared to a record-breaking 2018. The reports count just over $80 billion raised, compared to 2018’s $117 billion.
For Greater Washington, year-to-date totals are shy of 2018's pace. The 183 deals thus far have brought in $1.28 billion, compared to the 258 deals in all of 2018 that racked up just over $2 billion in investments.
“Investment activity isn’t quite on pace to reach the record deal value posted in 2018, but the environment remains robust,” according to the Venture Monitor. “The overall climate of the VC ecosystem appears to have cooled slightly, but there remains ample capital in private markets for VCs to invest.”
D.C.'s Top 10
Here are the top 10 D.C.-area deals laid out in the Venture Monitor.
HawkEye 360 – $70M Xometry – $55M Federated Wireless – $51M Arcellx – $42M Trinity Cyber – $23M Percipient.ai – $20M Octopus – $13M UrbanStems – $12M Radius Networks – $11M GiGstreem – $10M
Inno reporter Lauren Coffey contributed to this report.
