Uber-Size Deals Dominate Mega Year in U.S. Venture Activity

their historical range, seed-stage deals hit a five-year high in 2014, at $1.33 billion. The 976 seed-stage financings was the highest number since 2009.

For the second straight year, the top five states for both funding and deals were California, New York, Massachusetts, Texas, and Washington. Here’s the breakdown, according to data from CB Insights:

—California: Venture capital funding nearly doubled in 2014, with VCs investing $26.8 billion in 1,631 deals in the Golden State. That was 81 percent more than the $14.8 billion that VCs invested in California startups in 2013, and the deal count was 12 percent higher than the 1,449 deals in 2013. Some of the biggest deals (and dollars) were Uber ($1.2 billion), Uber (another $1.2 billion), Cloudera ($900 million), and Snapchat ($486 million).

—New York: A total of 422 startups in the Empire State raised $4.5 billion in 2014. The amount invested was about 53 percent more than the $2.9 billion that VCs invested in New York in 2013, and the deal count was 7 percent higher than the 396 deals of that year. Some of the biggest deals (and dollars) in New York were for WeWork ($355 million), Vice Media ($250 million), WeWork ($157 million more), and FlatIron Health ($130 million).

—Massachusetts: VC funding totaled $4.2 billion in 346 companies in 2014. That was about 37 percent more than the $3 billion that venture firms invested in 2013, when there were 318 deals. Some of the biggest deals were for Moderna Therapeutics ($450 million), Actifio ($100 million), SimpliSafe ($57 million), and Thinking Phone Networks ($57 million).

—Texas: Venture funding in Texas grew to $1.2 billion in 2014, a 21 percent increase over the $1 billion invested in 2013. There were 143 deals, an 8 percent increase over the 132 deals in 2013. Some of the year’s biggest deals (and dollars) were Surveys and Mapping ($123 million), Spiceworks ($57 million), and ZS Pharma ($55 million).

—Washington: VC funding totaled $1.1 billion in Washington in 2014, about one-third more than the $900 million that was invested in 2013. The deal count for 2014 was 97, a 17 percent decline from the 117 deals in 2013. The state’s big deals of 2014 included Juno Therapeutics ($134 million), Redfin ($71 million), and ExtraHop Networks ($41 million).

Venture activity in some other Xconomy states, according to CB Insights:

—Colorado, venture firms invested a total of $690 million in 77 deals last year.

—North Carolina, VCs put $355.2 million in 46 deals.

—Michigan, VCs invested $296 million in 38 deals.

—Wisconsin, venture investments totaled $144.8 in 29 deals.

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Author: Bruce V. Bigelow

In Memoriam: Our dear friend Bruce V. Bigelow passed away on June 29, 2018. He was the editor of Xconomy San Diego from 2008 to 2018. Read more about his life and work here. Bruce Bigelow joined Xconomy from the business desk of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was a member of the team of reporters who were awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for uncovering bribes paid to San Diego Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in exchange for special legislation earmarks. He also shared a 2006 award for enterprise reporting from the Society of Business Editors and Writers for “In Harm’s Way,” an article about the extraordinary casualty rate among employees working in Iraq for San Diego’s Titan Corp. He has written extensively about the 2002 corporate accounting scandal at software goliath Peregrine Systems. He also was a Gerald Loeb Award finalist and National Headline Award winner for “The Toymaker,” a 14-part chronicle of a San Diego start-up company. He takes special satisfaction, though, that the series was included in the library for nonfiction narrative journalism at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Bigelow graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1977 with a degree in English Literature and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1979. Before joining the Union-Tribune in 1990, he worked for the Associated Press in Los Angeles and The Kansas City Times.