Startup bazinga! Triangle ‘Tweeners’ smash fundraising record; new list swells to 251 emerging stars

RALEIGH – The startup profile update of the year—”Triangle Tweener List”—has been released, and the list has grown, yet again, even as 13 companies from last year’s list have moved off of it.

According to the list, which is gathered and presented by Scot Wingo, a Triangle-based serial entrepreneur, co-founder and CEO of Spiffy, and the founder of the recently launched Triangle Tweener Fund, there are now 251 companies based in the region who meet the rigid criteria to appear on the list.

Last year, the 227 companies were selected, up from 176 in 2019 and 143 in 2018.

And while 12 companies have “exited” the list, the real story from the last year in the Tweener economy of the Triangle is told by one metric: total dollars of invested capital.

A “Tweener” is a technology company—no consultancies, no agencies, no life science companies—that’s in between their early stage and becoming an established company.

“Think of Triangle Tweeners as the ‘Goldilocks’ companies in the Triangle—not too small and not too large,” said Wingo in 2021, describing the criteria and the companies that comprise the annual list. “These are our future breakouts, big fund-raisers, acquisition targets and (fingers crossed) IPOs.”

In order to appear on the list, companies must generate more than $1 million but less than $80 million in annual revenue, or must employ at least 10 full-time workers, but no more than 500.

Local entrepreneur releases 2021 Triangle “Tweener” list

$700M

According to a Medium post, the method used by Wingo to publish the list each year, there were more than $700 million invested into Triangle Tweeners in 2021.

“Bazinga!!” writes Wingo, “[T]his was an incredible year for fundraising.”

That mark doesn’t include Pendo’s $110 million round or $150 million round—or the $1.7 billion in funding raised by Epic Games, as the company does not fit the criteria—but just funding raised by those companies that appear on the Tweener List.

“For a long time, I’ve argued that, yes we need more VCs in the area, but if we build great companies, investors will come,” wrote Wingo. “That was really proven out in 2021.”

Wingo’s Triangle Tweener Fund made four investments in Tweener companies in January 2022, as reported by WRAL TechWire.

4 Triangle companies raise money from Triangle Tweener Fund

Tweener number grew, but here’s the math

So while the total number of Tweeners increased, there were 13 Tweeners who exited the list, including 12 companies who were acquired and one company, Pendo, that experienced a “graduation,” meaning that they’ve surpassed $80 million in annual revenues.

Pendo itself announced it had surpassed $100 million in annual revenues last August—meaning the Raleigh-grown tech unicorn no longer qualified as a “Tweener” under Wingo’s published criteria.

At the beginning of the year, there were 227 Tweeners. Subtract 13 for exiting the list, that’s 224.

But then 37 new companies grew to inclusion on the list.

And more could be coming—or have already reached the criteria that will add them to next year’s Tweener list, wrote Wingo .

“For every Tweener I meet, there are 10 ‘soon-to-be’ Tweeners, so I believe the pipeline is quite robust.”

New investment fund targets Triangle startups with backing from 20+ founders

Flywheel in effect

The region’s startup ecosystem can now be described as a “flywheel,” noted Wingo.

“What makes the flywheel go faster are entrepreneurs, investment capital, revenues, M+A and graduations—all in an interconnected circle,” wrote Wingo.

And the flywheel is accelerating, wrote Wingo. “Tee us up for continued accelerating momentum and a healthy ecosystem.”

Earlier this week, Startup Genome released its annual report that tracks where startup ecosystems rank globally. The Triangle ranked as the 8th best emerging startup ecosystem, 48th overall.