Editor’s note: This is the third in a series of stories taking an in-depth look at the new CED Innovator’s Report on funding trends and details for 2017.
DURHAM – Within the data behind the Council for Entrepreneurial Development’s (CED) annual Innovator’s Report, are trends that buck national data trends. Rather than an overall decline in seed deal volume as seen in the national data sets, the number of seed deals rose in North Carolina. Life science deals were down despite a national uptick in the sector.
In 2017, over 80 percent of the 224 deals in North Carolina were under $5 million. When combined, deals under $5 million accounted for $217 million or 19.3 percent of the total $1.1 billion raised.
Seed deal size increased too. Seed deals in the $1 million-$4.9 million category jumped 20 percent or by a total of $30 million.
Tracking national seed deals
Meanwhile, the Pitchbook-NVCA Venture Monitor report released earlier this year noted seed deals were down across the country in 2017—particularly when compared to the uptick in later stage deals. Other reports like the Dow Jones VentureSource and the PwC/CB Insights MoneyTree Report also identified a drop in seed stage deals in 2017.
More coverage of CED report:
- Convertible notes grow as funding choice
- Charlotte sets pace as NC entrepreneurs land $1B in funding
Despite the growth in seed deals, late stage deals continue to account for the bulk of total amounts of funding nationally and in North Carolina. The top four deals in NC in 2017 combined to reach $552 million and accounted for nearly 50 percent of all NC funding. Similarly, large investments in unicorns made up 22.8 percent of all funding nationwide in 2017 according to the Pitchbook-NVCA Venture Monitor report.
Breaking down deal data
North Carolina’s uptick in tech investments also bucks a national trend towards a life science increase identified in the Venture Monitor report. At $17.6 billion, nationwide investments in life science companies reached their highest point since 2007 in 2017. Meanwhile, they accounted for 24 percent, or $269.8 million of the $1.1 billion raised by North Carolina companies in 2017. Last year North Carolina based life science companies raised over $463 billion. That’s a 41.7 percent drop from 2016 to 2017.
The switch from life science to tech is typical for the state. Every few years, the sectors swap places in the funding rankings.
