Things continued to warm up this spring for Massachusetts tech and life sciences startups inking investments. Last month, companies raised $306 million across 35 equity-based deals, a roughly 18 percent surge from during March. That’s according to data from our partner CB Insights’ FundingFlash, which provides a daily roundup of companies receiving venture capital, angel investment, and growth equity funding.
Healthcare was undoubtedly the winner last month, taking in $177.4 million in nine deals. I guess the sector had to make up for lost time from March, when it came in as a close second for dollars raised, behind the Internet sector.
You could credit the win to the $77 million Series G deal (Aprils’ biggest financing) that went to Cambridge, MA-based drugmaker Merrimack Pharmaceuticals. But even without that, life sciences companies pulled in just over $100 million. Indeed, the top three deals for the month all went to healthcare companies, with Cambridge-based Blueprint Medicines and Bluebird Bio taking in $40 million and $30 million after Merrimack, respectively. Blueprint is working to develop personalized cancer treatments based on molecular and cancer genome data and a proprietary chemical-compound library and Bluebird is working on experimental gene therapies for genetic diseases.
The runner-up sector, Internet, raised less than a third of what healthcare companies did in April, at $57.3 million in 14 deals. To add insult to injury, the top Internet financing went to a company working on SaaS-based business intelligence products for the healthcare industry. That would be Boston-based Humedica, which took in $20 million in Series B money.
The mobile industry is continuing to stay strong this year. The sector came in third for dollars raised in April, at $31 million. Cambridge-based mobile ad network Jumptap took the top deal for the space, at $20 million (fourth highest deal of the month overall).
It looks like the state’s tech startups are sustaining the strong spring fundraising started in March ($260 million). Stay tuned for May, and meanwhile read the full list of April deals and details below.
Bay state startups brought in another $11.2 million in non-equity offerings. Check out those transactions below.
