Bull City Venture Partners co-founder David Jones sees lots of good news in the latest venture capital statistics that came out this week. He also likes the promise of 2015.
And if you want to know what’s really happening in the state as well as region when it comes to venture investing, you need to talk to either Jones or his partner Jason Caplain.
Bull City focuses on startups but demonstrated its power locally and nationally by putting on a venture event earlier this week that drew some 300 people but, most importantly, significant venture investors from across the U.S.
So what does Jones have to say about the latest VC trends?
“Great to be back in the top 10, but we know this will fluctuate from quarter-to-quarter and 1-2 large deals can easily sway this statistic,” Jones said when asked about the National Venture Capital Association and PricewaterhouseCooper’s Moneytree report released Friday.
North Carolina ranked 10th nationally with 19 deals totaling more than $200 million for the quarter. The state ranked 16th for the year with total funding improving over 2013 and 2012.
“The overall trend over the last few years is more important than one quarter and we feel like NC is moving in the right direction,” Jones explained.
While most of the deals were in the Triangle in the last quarter as usual, startups in Charlotte, Asheville, Waynesville and Waxha also raised cash. Jones, who invests across the southeast, likes seeing other areas cash in.
“Innovation and great companies are being built everywhere, so it’s good to see more coming from outside the RTP tech-hub of NC,” he said.
As usual, life science firms and medical devices drew big deals (Viamet Pharmaceuticals the largest at $60 million), but semiconductor technology firm Phonomic Devices landed $45 million. Jones did point out one concern.
“Given the importance of healthcare/pharma/med devices to NC – it’s not such a great trend to see the overall VC market healthcare numbers decline over 2013,” he said.
As for 2015, the Bull City “Entrepreneur’s Series” event on Wednesday clearly demonstrated the excitement about startups in the state. It was the largest crowd to date in the series that dates back several years.
“The pipeline for 2015 is looking great,” Jones said/
“On the tech side I believe we will continue to see a good stable of companies break through the early-stage barrier and attract large outside capital.”
The year is already off to a strong start with several deals announced over the past few days. More to come? We’ll soon find out.
