Frontier tech startups — those focusing on augmented or virtual reality, space, and drones — raised a combined $3.5B in equity financings in 2015, over a record 254 deals.
Funding trends to these emerging tech areas were mixed in Q1’16, with AR/VR funding spiking, but drones seeing a relatively weak showing in the quarter. Using CB Insights data, we looked at annual and quarterly trends for frontier tech as a whole.
Yearly financing trends
While not surpassing the tremendous year-over-year growth seen in 2014, 2015 was still a significant leap. At $3.4B invested over 254 deals, the year finished with 118% growth in funding and 97% growth in deal volume.
The largest rounds of 2015 went to space companies including SpaceX’s $1B Series D, OneWeb‘s $500M round, and O3B Networks‘ $460M Series H.
Quarterly financing trends
After 4 quarters of $600M+ funding tallies, frontier tech plummeted to just $368M in Q3’15. Since that drop-off, however, funding rallied back to $879M in Q4’15 and $1.3B in Q1’16, respectively.
With $1.3B in funding over 72 deals, Q1’16 turned out to be the second-largest ever in terms of both deals and dollars. Compared to Q4’15 that’s 44% growth in funding, but a 9% fall in deal volume.
Notable Q1’16 deals included the $794M Series C mega-round to stealth AR headset developer Magic Leap, $100M round to AR/VR maker MindMaze, and a $62M Series D to satellite maker Kymeta. 
Deal geography
Frontier tech startups are concentrated in the US market, which was by far the largest destination for frontier tech investment, seeing 70% of the deals since 2011. The next-largest was the UK, which only saw 5%. 
Drilling into US-based frontier tech deals since 2011, 54% of deals have occurred in California. Washington state, which is home to big space companies Blue Origin and Kymeta, saw a sizable 7% of frontier tech deals. Florida, New York, and Massachusetts each saw 5% of the deal share.
Most active VC investors
Topping the list of active VCs in frontier tech by unique companies they’ve invested in was Rothenberg Ventures, a firm with a strong focus on the frontier tech categories. Rothenberg’s recent bets include Zeality, Vicarious Surgical, and EmergentVR.
In second was Lux Capital, which recently invested in AirMap, Kymeta, and CyphyWorks.
Third place was a tie between Qualcomm Ventures and Intel Capital. Intel Capital counts drone developer PrecisionHawk among its recent bets, and Qualcomm Ventures notably participated in Magic Leap‘s $794M Series C mega-round in Q1’16.
See the full list below:
| Rank | Investor |
|---|---|
| 1 | Rothenberg Ventures |
| 2 | Lux Capital |
| 3 | Qualcomm Ventures |
| 3 | Intel Capital |
| 5 | Andreessen Horowitz |
| 5 | Google Ventures |
| 7 | Felicis Ventures |
| 8 | First Round Capital |
| 8 | Founders Fund |
| 10 | Promus Ventures |
| 10 | Bessemer Venture Partners |
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