Venture Investors Spread Holiday Cheer to Mass. Startups in December: Companies Wrap Up $224 Million in Funding

Santa was good to the Massachusetts high-tech economy in December. Very good. Roughly $224 million poured into the state’s startups in 36 equity deals, representing 20 percent more money and more than 50 percent more deals than Bay State startup companies saw in November.

And November venture funding-22 deals worth $186 million-was nothing to scoff at. It’s now the fourth-highest dollars and deals totals since Xconomy started tracking monthly venture figures in June, with data supplied by our New York-based partner ChubbyBrain, an information services company with tools for investors, startups, and hopeful entrepreneurs.

The money Massachusetts startups raked in during December-the second-highest dollar total and highest number of deals tracked by Xconomy so far-suggests that the growth regained in November after a brief fall slump is continuing. Venture funding in October had shrunk to $169 million across 19 deals, compared to September’s $228 million in 25 deals, currently the best month in dollar terms to date.

Venture deals were a bit more egalitarian in December than they were in the previous month. The top five November deals were worth $21 million or more, the highest one ringing in at $31.3 million. The sixth-biggest round, however, dropped sharply to $6.7 million. December deals didn’t display the same staggering gaps in dollar values, though. The biggest disparity was the $4 million difference between No. 1 Afferent Pharmaceuticals and runner up Pixtronix. The deals that followed all trailed each other’s heels much more closely.

The top deals in December were also more diverse in the sectors they represent when compared to the month before. Five out of the top six November deals were in healthcare (a software company captured the month’s No. 1 slot). In December, by contrast, the top six included companies from healthcare, software, electronics, Internet, and mobile and telecommunications.


Massachusetts December Venture Capital Deals

The aforementioned Afferent, a Boston-based company working on developing treatments to chronic pain, topped our December list with $23 million in Series A funding. Mobile display maker Pixtronix, based out of Andover, MA, came in second with

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Author: Erin Kutz

Erin Kutz has a background in covering business, politics and general news. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Boston University. Erin previously worked in the Boston bureau of Reuters, where she wrote articles on the investment management and mutual fund industries. While in college, she researched for USA Today reporter Jayne O’Donnell’s book, Gen Buy: How Tweens, Teens and Twenty-Somethings Are Revolutionizing Retail. She also spent a semester in Washington, DC, reporting Capitol Hill stories as a correspondent for two Connecticut newspapers and interning in the Money section of USA Today, where she assisted with coverage on the retail and small business beats. Erin got her first taste of reporting at Boston University’s independent student newspaper, as a city section reporter and fact checker and editor of the paper’s weekly business section.