VCs Poured $300M into Seattle Area Companies in Q1, Up 33 Percent

Seattle-area companies collected some $300 million in investment during the first quarter, with biotech and medical devices companies claiming four of the 10 largest deals.

The first-quarter investment total was up 33 percent from the first quarter of 2016, according to the National Venture Capital Association’s quarterly Venture Monitor report, prepared by Seattle-based PitchBook. Deal volume was also up 15 percent from a year ago to 68 investments in the first quarter of 2017.

Nationally, a slowdown in VC investing was masked during the quarter by “several outsized deals,” such as Airbnb’s $1 billion Series F funding round, according to the Venture Monitor report. The quarter saw some $16.5 billion invested across about 1,800 deals, down 12 percent and 25 percent, respectively, from the first quarter of 2016.

“After several consecutive years of elevated U.S. venture activity, it seems the industry is finally coming back down to earth,” PitchBook founder and CEO John Gabbert says in a news release. “It’s easy to look at the numbers and assume the industry is starting to lose its footing, but we don’t think that’s the case. We see this as investors and entrepreneurs returning to a more disciplined approach to investing.”

The top 10 Seattle-area investments during the quarter, according to the report:

  • Faraday Pharmaceuticals, biopharmaceuticals, $32.6 million
  • Icertis, cloud-based contract management software, $25 million
  • WISErg, fertilizer from food waste, $21.2 million
  • Magnolia Medical Technologies, blood culture collection system, $21 million
  • Xevo, connected car software, $19.3 million
  • 2nd Watch, cloud computing migration and management, $19 million
  • Mighty AI (formerly Spare5), training data for AI, $14 million
  • Unium (formerly Coco Communications), WiFi mesh networks, $12.3 million
  • Silverback Therapeutics, biotech in stealth, $10 million
  • Nativis, bio-electronics for disease treatment, $9.6 million

Photo of Seattle Center International Fountain by Flickr user Ayleen Gaspar used under a Creative Commons 2.0 license.

Author: Benjamin Romano

Benjamin is the former Editor of Xconomy Seattle. He has covered the intersections of business, technology and the environment in the Pacific Northwest and beyond for more than a decade. At The Seattle Times he was the lead beat reporter covering Microsoft during Bill Gates’ transition from business to philanthropy. He also covered Seattle venture capital and biotech. Most recently, Benjamin followed the technology, finance and policies driving renewable energy development in the Western US for Recharge, a global trade publication. He has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication.