Venture funding raised by Maryland companies took a big jump in the second quarter of the year, as companies in the state raised a total of $226 million.
That’s a 180% increase over the first quarter total of $80 million, according to data from a PwC/CB Insights MoneyTree report. The number of deals also increased, from 19 in the first quarter to 21.
When it comes to overall totals, it marked a “a significant rebound for the state,” said Brad Phillips, a director in PwC’s Emerging Company Services practice. It came after totals dipped in Q1 coming off a year in 2018 that saw the highest VC haul since 2001.
It also followed an overall trend that makes judging a single quarter difficult, as Maryland consistently sees up-and-down totals from quarter to quarter in the region.
Phillips also noted that three of the top five deals in the region were for Maryland-based companies, as well as 62% of the funding and more than half the number of deals within the DMV region. Those three biggest deals all came from Gaithersburg-based companies in the form of a $75 million Series B investment in biotech company Viela Bio, a $50 million Series B for on-demand manufacturing marketplace Xometry and a $22 million Series C for biopharmaceutical company Sirnaomics. Overall, the state ranked 12th in the U.S. for number of dollars invested and 11th for number of deals.
Read more via Technical.ly Baltimore.