May was the third-straight month with over $1.1B in funding going to early-stage startups, but the number of deals continues to fall. The report below details early stage (Angel and Series A) technology financings, and ranks some of the hottest early-stage tech companies funded in May 2015 based on momentum data from social media, news, and web traffic.
Specifically this report covers:
- Overall financing trends
- Mean & median deal sizes
- Which sectors garnered the most investment
- The month’s largest deals
- The most active VCs
- Companies with the most momentum
FINANCING TRENDS
MAY 2015: $1.19B INVESTED ACROSS 358 EARLY-STAGE DEALS
Early-stage tech-deal activity fell for the second-straight month, as startups raised $1.19B across 358 early-stage deals in May.
MEDIAN DEAL SIZES BOUNCE BACK
The median round size across all early-stage tech deals topped $1.8M for the first time since October 2014. This is the third-highest monthly median in the past two years.
ANGEL DEAL SIZE HITS LOWS
After mean and median deal sizes popped in March, Angel rounds have now fallen for two straight months, with the median deal size reaching just $490K in May 2015, the lowest median size of the past two years.
SEED DEAL SIZES HOLD AT $1M
Median Seed tech-deal sizes in May hit $1M for the second-straight month as 7 of the last 8 months have hovered closely around the $1M median size.
SERIES A MEDIAN SIZE STEADY AT $5M
The median Series A deal size was $5M in May, marking the ninth-straight month at $5M+, further cementing $5M as the new normal for Series A.
INTERNET DEAL SHARE TOPS 60% — AGAIN
Internet startups accounted for 64% of all early-stage tech deals in May. This was the fifth-straight month that internet deal-share has topped 60%. Mobile startups were up slightly, taking 26% of all deals, versus 25% in April.
INTERNET FUNDING SHARE FALLS BELOW 60%
Internet startups captured 60% of all funding in May 2015, their lowest dollar-share of investments in 2015. Software startups took 8% of all dollars, including large deals to Visible Alpha and eVolution Networks, among others.
10 LARGEST US EARLY-STAGE DEALS RAISE $196M
Visible Alpha, a business-intelligence and data-analytics platform was the largest US early-stage tech deal in May, raising $30M from Morgan Stanley, UBS, Citigroup, and others. Samsara Networks and eVolution Networks rounded out the top 3, as the top 10 deals cumulatively raised $195.6M in May.
| Rank | Company | Sub-Industry | Amount ($M) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Visible Alpha | BI, Analytics & Performance Mgmt | 30.0 |
| 2 | Samsara Networks | Semiconductors: Sensors | 25.0 |
| 3 | eVolution Networks | Green/Environmental Software | 22.5 |
| 4 | Jumpshot | BI, Analytics & Performance Mgmt | 22.0 |
| 4 | Schoola | Information Providers & Portals | 18.5 |
| 6 | Algolia | Search | 18.3 |
| 7 | PlanGrid | Collaboration & Project Management | 18.0 |
| 8 | Farmers Business Network | BI, Analytics & Performance Mgmt | 15.0 |
| 9 | Gametime United | Mobile Commerce | 13.3 |
| 10 | Stride Health | Comparison Shopping | 13.0 |
500 STARTUPS WAS THE MOST ACTIVE VC IN MAY
500 Startups was the most active early-stage tech VC in May, with investments in Cleanly, NewsWhip, and Mitoo, among others. Accel Partners and RRE Ventures rounded out the top 3.
| Rank | Investor |
|---|---|
| 1 | 500 Startups |
| 2 | Accel Partners |
| 3 | RRE Ventures |
| 4 | Greycroft Partners |
| 4 | White Star Capital |
| 4 | CrunchFund |
| 4 | SAIF Partners |
MOMENTUM
HIGH-BUZZ EARLY-STAGE TECH COMPANIES
We tracked overall news mentions as well as web traffic metrics (page views, reach, rank) and Twitter mention growth for the early-stage tech companies that received financing in May 2015. Below are the 4th- to 20th-ranked companies in each metric. The full top 20 are only available to CB Insights customers on the Research tab.
| News Mentions | Web Traffic | Twitter Mention Growth | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Company | Rank | Company | Rank | Company | ||
| 1 | Login to CB Insights | 1 | Login to CB Insights | 1 | Login to CB Insights | ||
| 2 | Login to CB Insights | 2 | Login to CB Insights | 2 | Login to CB Insights | ||
| 3 | Login to CB Insights | 3 | Login to CB Insights | 3 | Login to CB Insights | ||
| 4 | Incentive | 4 | CBT Sports | 4 | itBit | ||
| 4 | Drizly | 5 | Toppr | 5 | Drizly | ||
| 6 | XAPPMedia | 6 | Swiggy | 6 | Box8 | ||
| 7 | Talkspace | 7 | LeTV Sports | 7 | Talkspace | ||
| 8 | Immediately | 7 | EveningFlavors | 8 | Cleanly | ||
| 8 | Edrolo | 9 | MeetUniv | 9 | Hopwork | ||
| 10 | Trizic | 10 | Cleeng | 10 | Bulu Box | ||
| 11 | Algolia | 11 | Algolia | 11 | DataHero | ||
| 12 | Complete | 11 | The News Lens | 12 | Glowforge | ||
| 12 | RealMassive | 13 | PureWow | 13 | Vadio | ||
| 12 | Toppr | 13 | BuyHatke | 13 | Directly | ||
| 12 | The Odyssey | 15 | Blitsy | 13 | Bak USA | ||
| 12 | Vedantu | 16 | Rappler | 16 | mnubo | ||
| 17 | Blitsy | 17 | The Muse | 17 | MyNextRun | ||
| 18 | Hotels.ng | 17 | Vedantu | 18 | Vedantu | ||
| 18 | Exchange Corporation | 19 | PlanGrid | 19 | Fetch Rewards | ||
| 18 | Vadio | 20 | Minus | 20 | Toppr |
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