However, deals to VC-backed tech companies in the Big Apple are still considerably off peaks seen in 2014 and 2015.
VC-backed tech companies in New York saw a three-year low in deals in Q4’15. Deals recovered in the first quarter of 2016, and equity funding reached a five-year high in Q1’16, driven by three $100M+ mega-rounds, to Betterment, Oscar Health, and Flatiron Health.
Our analysis includes all equity funding rounds and convertible notes, but excluded debt deals.
Quarterly Deals and dollars
- Deal activity peaked in Q3’14, when more than 155 New York-based tech companies raised equity funding rounds. Some of the largest funding rounds include a $250M growth equity round raised by Vice Media and a $70M Series C round raised by stock trading platform, IEX Group.
- Deal count fluctuated in subsequent quarters, dropping to 117 in Q4’15, a 3-year low. Deal activity improved in Q1’16, increasing by 9% to 127 deals.
- Equity funding reached a five-year quarterly high in Q1’16, driven by 3 mega-rounds. Two went to digital health companies: a $400M Series C round raised by Oscar Health Insurance and a $175M Series C round raised by Flatiron Health. There was also a $100M Series E round raised by online investment company, Betterment.
New York tech exits
- After a sharp decline in M&As in Q4’15 — a 35% drop from the previous quarter — VC-backed tech exits bounced back in Q1’16. Some of the recent M&As include Drip.com’s acquisition by Kickstarter and FullContact’s acquisition of online address book, Brewster.
- There was only 1 IPO in 2015—Etsy‘s, valued at $1.78B—compared to 4 IPOs in 2014.
Largest VC-backed tech exits
The largest NY tech exit in the last 5 years was e-commerce marketplace Etsy‘s IPO, valued at $1.8B. OnDeck Capital (2015 IPO) and Tumblr (acquired by Yahoo) were two other companies with $1B+ disclosed exit valuations. 2015 also saw the $442M acquisition of Business Insider by Axel Springer.
| Rank | Company | Acquirer | Year | Valuation ($M) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Etsy | IPO | 2015 | $1,775 |
| 2 | OnDeck Capital | IPO | 2014 | $1,323 |
| 3 | Tumblr | Yahoo | 2013 | $1,100 |
| 4 | Buddy Media | Salesforce | 2012 | $745 |
| 5 | Shutterstock | IPO | 2012 | $570 |
| 6 | Varonis Systems | IPO | 2014 | $524 |
| 7 | 1010data | Advance Publications | 2015 | $500 |
| 8 | Tremor Video | IPO | 2013 | $494 |
| 9 | Borderfree | IPO | 2014 | $488 |
| 10 | The Business Insider | Axel Springer | 2015 | $442 |
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