California gets $15 billion in funding for startups, 57% of all US investments – Orange County Register

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The big investors betting on young companies must have missed the chatter about California’s purportedly poor business climate as they continue to pour an outsized share of money into the state’s startups.

Dow Jones VentureSource reports 548 California companies raised $15.6 billion in venture capital in the third quarter. Yes, that’s down from 645 deals worth $18.4 billion made a year earlier. But it outpaces 2014-18 when California averaged 609 venture capital deals worth $12.1 billion per quarter.

And my trusty spreadsheet tells me the latest California investments equaled 57% of total venture capital raised nationwide. Only three other times since 1992, when this tabulation started, did the state have a bigger slice of this critical business financing. This funding can be volatile, but California’s leadership has been constant. For example, companies statewide snared 53% of venture capital raised in 2014-2018.

Venture capital is high-risk-but-high-reward funding for companies in their early stages of development. It’s crucial for many untested concepts that don’t have quick profitability, especially in technology and medical fields. California’s domination of this startup cash is a huge advantage in the nationwide competition to create new businesses and jobs.

But note that this essential lifeblood of fledgling corporations does not only propel the next information powerhouse or firms trying to create scientific breakthroughs. Look at some firms that got third-quarter funding in California, according to VentureSource.

Bird Rides, a Santa Monica-based scooter-sharing service, got $251 million. Turo, a San Francisco service that allows car owners to rent out their vehicles, raised $221 million. Sonder of San Francisco, which provides short-term housing services, got $199 million. Healthy-food restaurants Sweetgreen of Culver City scored $137 million. And Lavender Lingerie from El Segundo — yes, they sell undies — raised $63 million.

Within California, funding this past quarter was down north and south. In the Bay Area, 404 venture capital deals worth $11.63 billion were made vs. 498 deals worth $14.42 billion in 2018’s third quarter. Southern California had 137 deals worth $3.86 billion vs. 144 deals worth $3.9 billion in 2018’s third quarter.

This slowdown is not just California: In the rest of the nation, 747 deals were made raising $11.9 billion — a tally down 18% in a year.

Dealmaking slows for various reasons. The supply of good ideas is a factor. As is the broad economic mood, which has been shaky this year. And then there’s the overall appetite for investing. Ponder the Nasdaq stock index, seen as a performance barometer of newer, cutting-edge companies. It was up just 2% in the 12 months ended Sept. 30 vs. a gain nearing 50% over the previous two years.

Venture capitalists’ skittishness is shown in another recent spending habit: fewer but bigger bets, both here and nationally. The average California deal this quarter was $28 million vs. $20 million in 2014-18. Nationally, this quarter’s average deal was worth $21 million vs. $16 million in 2014-18.

And California’s 16% one-year dip in fundraising looks small compared with the next two largest recipients of venture capital: New York deals worth $3.4 billion were off 37% and Massachusetts’s $1.7 billion was down 35%. Yet the next four states all had gains — Washington (up 8% to $791 million); Illinois (up 32% to $645 million); Colorado (up 22% to $644 million); and Texas (up 12% to $612 million).

Still, California’s take was roughly double these six states combined.