Pacific Northwest H1 2019 Venture Deals
I thought it would be good to start issue #1 out with some commentary on the overall startup market in Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia. For the first half of 2019, we are seeing similar deal volume to previous years but higher valuations and better deals for founders.
For example, in Q2 2017, the “median” deal in the PNW was a $3M raise at a $15M post-money valuation, which would be ~20% dilution. Today, the “median” deal is a ~$4M raise at a ~$40M valuation – only 10% dilution.
Better deals for founders are good, but along with higher valuations, investors have higher expectations from companies as well. Here’s a good blog post from Wing on how this trend is playing out between startups and VCs.
Basically, startups today are raising more money, sooner, in multiple “Seed” rounds. By the time they get to the “Series A,” they have “Series B” traction and valuation expectations. At that point, these companies are a safer bet for investors, but they are more expensive than they’ve been in the past.
So who’s out here raising these bigger, better Series A rounds? Here are some of the recently announced Series A deals in the PNW:
- 👩⚕️ Xealth - Marketplace for digital health apps - $14M Series A
- 🏢 Traction Guest - Visitor management system - $13M Series A led by Bessemer Venture Partners
- 📈 Bumped - Customer loyalty using stocks and ETFs - $19.5M Series A led by Canaan Partners
- 🏦 Possible Finance - Affordable short-term installment loans - $10.5M Series A led by Canvas Ventures
- (Pro-tip: Startups normally try to hire aggressively after raising money, so if any of these sound interesting to you, check out their jobs pages)