Washington Startups Collect $24M in November, Med Devices Lead the Way

It looks like startup investors laid low during turkey month, when tech and life sciences companies collected a total of $24.4 million in equity-based funding across 19 deals. The November total shrunk from this summer and early fall, when the state’s startups pulled in anywhere from $50 million to $80 million per month in financing, according to data provided by CB Insights FundingFlash.

Most of the deals last month were on the smaller side; 12 of 19 were worth less than $1 million each. Healthcare companies led in dollars raised, with $11.7 million, and the Internet sector came in as runner-up with $8.4 million. But there were twice as many Internet financings (10) as there were healthcare transactions (five).

The top November financing went to a company we’ve seen before: Kirkland, WA-based Cardiac Dimensions, a developer of implantable devices for the treatment of mitral valve regurgitation associated with congestive heart failure. The startup brought in $6.5 million in an equity- and rights-based offering last month. In 2009, it nabbed clearance to sell its first device in Europe. Another med device firm followed closely at its heels last month. Gig Harbor, WA-based Generic Medical Devices develops products for soft tissue repair procedures, and grabbed a $4.3 million equity round last month.

The environmental products and services sector scored high on the deals list last month, with Arlington, WA-based MicroGreen Polymers taking the third spot, with $2.7 million in Series B money. The startup is developing technology to recycle plastics into coffee cups and other items. Back in May, the University of Washington spinout raised $6.9 million from WRF Capital, Northwest Energy Angels, private investors, and garbage giant Waste Management (NYSE: [[ticker:WM]]).

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Seattle-based Stax Networks, a Java applications platform provider, raised $250,000 in November. It made big news earlier this week when it was acquired by Boston’s CloudBees, a maker of cloud-based platforms for Java computing and development.

We’ll have to keep our eyes out on the December list, to see if area investors amped up their activity with a pre-holiday funding rush. Meanwhile, check the full list of November financings below.

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Also, another three Washington companies raised $4.5 million through non-equity-based deals. Check out those details here.

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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.