When it comes to venture capital, New York looks now to be all grown up.
Not only has New York trounced Massachusetts by growth of tech VC investors over the past several years, NY is also the only market able to muster an upward trend in tech VC deal and funding share vs. Silicon Valley and other major U.S. venture hubs since 2010.
So given NY’s upward VC financing trajectory, we wanted to highlight some investment trends observed in NY in 2013, including the top sectors, stages and largest deals of the year. For more VC financing and exit data across all sectors and U.S. tech hubs, see the full 2013 Venture Capital Activity and Exits Report.
As the chart below indicates, Q4 2013 marked an eight-quarter high for New York venture capital deal and funding activity as investors deployed almost $1B to NY-based startups heading into 2014. On a year-over-year basis, NY VC funding jumped a notable 49% and hit a five-year high as deal levels increased 12%.
New York Financing Trend By Sub-Industry
Indicative of New York’s increasingly one-track VC focus on tech, almost 7 of every 10 VC deals in New York went to Internet startups in 2013. Mobile startups took 18% of New York’s deal share last year.
Within Internet and mobile software, eCommerce startups including Fab, Bonobos and Fancy dominated New York VC financing activity and took $780M across 62 deals last year. A chart of the top 10 NY Internet and mobile sub-industries by number of VC deals in 2013 is below.
New York Financing Trend By Stage
Seed investments took the largest share of VC deals in New York last year, followed by Series A deals. But on a year-over-year basis, Series A deal share also saw the largest drop across the maturity spectrum falling from 31% in 2012 to 28% of all mobile deals in 2013. New York-based Series B deal share rose slightly to 17%.
New York’s funding activity by stage saw a different picture. Of note, New York saw a rise of bigger late-stage deals in 2013 as Series D funding share jumped to 18% from 7% in 2012 and Series E+ share rose from 10% to 15%. At the mid-stage, Series C funding levels deflated from 2012’s high, as funding share fell to 20%.
The Largest New York VC Deals in 2013
Fab.com’s mega Series D round was the largest of a New York headquartered company last year. MongoDB’s $150M financing from hedge fund and mutual funds Altimeter Capital and T. Rowe Price among other VC investors was second and valued the data management startup between $930M and $1.2B. The chart below highlights the sizable checks VC firms are writing within the growing New York startup ecosystem.
For more NY financing and exit data and analytics, check out the CB Insights Venture Capital Database. Sign up for free below.