2014 saw $7.8 billion invested by venture capitalists into mobile companies. The funding spiked in Q4 2014 when VC funding to the mobile sector topped $3B behind mega-deals to companies including Uber and Snapchat.
Using CB Insights data, here’s a breakdown of 2014’s mobile investment trends including the top industries and stages for deal and funding activity. The data below.
Three states take 3/4 of mobile VC deals in 2014
VC deals in the mobile space concentrated heavily among a few geographies in 2014. Of note, the trifecta of California, New York and Massachusetts increased their mobile deal share to 76% in 2014, up from 71% in 2013.
On the funding front, California once again sat atop mobile venture capital funding taking 79% of VC investment dollars. New York and Massachusetts were the only other two states with funding share greater than 1%.
While seed deals rise, late-stage funding skyrockets
Early stage investments at the Seed and Series A stage made up 70% of VC deals in the mobile sector as investors increasingly bet on the promise of mobile. 2014 saw mobile seed deal share rise to 41%, from 37% in 2013, in line with seed deals climbing across the board. Late-stage deal activity remained largely range-bound on a year-over-year basis.
Meanwhile, mega-deals in mobile at the late-stage (Series D+) included some eye-popping checks and commanded 58% of funding share in the mobile space.
Mobile travel funding dominates
VCs chased deals in a wide range of mobile sub-industries in 2014, but none more than ‘Health & Wellness’, which took 8% of all deals in the mobile sector. ‘Social’, ‘CRM’, and ‘Conferencing & Communication’ followed.
With the rise of Uber and Lyft in 2014, ‘Travel’ dominated funding share in Mobile, accounting for 35% of all VC dollars to Mobile startups. ‘Photo’ garnered the second most funding largely due to Snapchat’s $485.6M Series D at 7%.
Top mobile VC deals and cities
San Francisco and New York top the list of U.S. cities for Mobile & Telecom venture capital deals. Uber’s Series D and E rounds which cumulatively raised $2.4B were the largest mobile VC deals of 2014, while Snapchat closed the third-largest mobile deal right at the close of 2014.
| Top Cities | Deals | Dollars ($M) | Company | Round | Amount ($M) | Quarter | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | 139 | $4,141 | Uber | Series E | $1,200 | Q4’14 | |
| New York | 73 | $394 | Uber | Series D | $1,200 | Q2’14 | |
| Palo Alto | 19 | $95 | Snapchat | Series D | $486 | Q4’14 | |
| Boston | 19 | $123 | TangoMe | Series D | $280 | Q1’14 | |
| Mountain View | 17 | $450 | Lyft | Series D | $250 | Q2’14 | |
| Austin | 10 | $53 | Instacart | Series C | $220 | Q4’14 | |
| Redwood City | 9 | $76 | Square | Series E | $150 | Q4’14 | |
| Seattle | 9 | $43 | Lookout | Series F | $150 | Q3’14 | |
| Menlo Park | 9 | $26 | NextNav | Series D | $70 | Q3’14 | |
| San Diego | 9 | $46 | Yik Yak | Series B | $62 | Q4’14 |
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