Altogether, 43 companies in the state raised $344.5 million during the first quarter of 2017. The state hasn’t seen that quarterly amount raised from venture capitalists since the second quarter of 2015. Last year, private firms in Colorado raised $686 million, the lowest amount since 2013 and , according to PwC.
PwC analyst Rob Ward doesn’t like to make a big deal about the change in one quarter and said that Colorado got its “fair share of investment dollars” after a soft fourth quarter.
“Although we can’t point to any one factor, we did see improvements in Q1’17 in national funding levels from reduced Q4’16 levels,” Ward said in an email. “We’ve seen continued optimism with traditional venture investors and optimism in the IPO (initial public offering) market helping support later stage investments.”Colorado’s first-quarter 2017 funding ranked fourth nationally for the number of deals and the amount raised. California was the top state, with New York and Massachusetts at second and third, respectively, for number of deals and swapping positions when ranked for dollar amounts.
Nationwide, venture capital deals declined to 1,104 deals and $13.86 billion in the first quarter, compared to $15.68 billion invested in 1,301 companies a year ago.
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The Denver area was one of the few regions nationwide that saw an uptick in funding. Comparably, deals were flat in Silicon Valley and in decline in San Francisco, which saw the number of deals fall to an eight-quarter low.
In Colorado, Cherwell Software, based in Colorado Springs, led the pack in February that is intended to help the IT service management company expand.
Other large deals included miRagen Therapeutics, a Boulder biopharmaceutical company that ; Boom Technology, which to develop a supersonic jet at the Centennial Airport; and that collected $25 million from investors.
