Investors Bet Nearly $500 Million on Philly Area Companies in 2015 — So Far
Photo credit: Andreas Metz via Flickr
With an established pharmaceutical industry, a thriving tech sector and a budding startup scene, the Philadelphia region has been a hotbed of venture capital investment recently.
In fact, Philly-area companies have received more than $196 million in VC funds in the third quarter of 2015, according to a new PwC/NVCA MoneyTree Report based on data from Thomson Reuters.
Year-to-date, that’s a cool $483 million for the region.
The Q3 haul represents the largest investment the region has received in one quarter since 2008, the year the Great Recession started. It also represented a 13 percent increase over Q2 and a whopping 72 percent increase from Q1. The region now needs less than $5 million to beat its 2014 total of $488 million.
The largest investment was for technology company SevOne Inc. of Wilmington, Del., which got more than $47 million from Bain Capital Venture Partners, Osage Partners and others. Another big one was a $38 million investment for specialty pharmaceutical company Aclaris Theraputics of Malvern, Pa.
Still, Philadelphia was on the low end of VC investment when compared to areas like Silicon Valley ($7.9 billion in Q3), New York Metro ($1.8 billion) and New England ($2.1 billion.)
Nationally, venture capitalists invested $16.3 billion in 1,070 deals in the third quarter — down five percent from the second quarter. Still, the third quarter marks the seventh consecutive quarter of more than $10 billion of venture capital invested.
“Despite a modest downtick in dollars and deals in the third quarter, we are still in a midst of a robust market and this quarter marks the second highest quarter in aggregate investment dollars since the fourth quarter of 2000,” said Tom Ciccolella, U.S. venture capital market leader at PwC. “Though software remains dominant, the top 10 deals included rounds of funding across seven industries, illustrating continued investment appetite in new areas of innovation across industries.”
The MoneyTree Report also highlighted the top deals in Philadelphia proper — which featured a nearly $4 million investment for software firm Picwell Inc. and $3.5 million for tech firm PeopleLinx.
Here’s a list of the biggest Q3 deals in the Philly region:
| Company | Location | Industry | Amount | Business Description | Investors |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SevOne Inc. | Wilmington, Del. | IT Services | $47,078,000 | Provides information technology performance management software. | Bain Capital Venture Partners LLC,HarbourVest Partners LLC,Osage Partners,Undisclosed Firm,Undisclosed Firm,Westfield Capital Management Co LP |
| Aclaris Therapeutics Inc | Malvern, Pa. | Biotechnology | $38,199,600 | Aclaris Therapeutics Inc is a specialty pharmaceutical company. | Aperture Venture Partners LLC,Fidelity Biosciences,RA Capital Management LLC,Rock Springs Capital Management LP,Sofinnova Ventures Inc,Undisclosed Firm,Vivo Capital LLC |
| Accolade Inc. | Plymouth Meeting, Pa. | Healthcare Services | $22,500,000 | Accolade, Inc. provides healthcare related information services | McKesson Ventures,Undisclosed Firm |
| Nalu Medical Inc. | Newark, Del | Medical Devices and Equipment | $11,915,000 | Provides products and services. | Advent Venture Partners LLP,Longitude Capital Management Co LLC |
| InfaCare Pharmaceutical Corp | Trevose, Pa. | Biotechnology | $11,500,000 | Operates as a specialty pharmaceutical company. | Atlas Venture,Longitude Capital Management Co LLC |
| iQ Media Group LLC | Conshohocken, Pa. | Business Products and Services | $9,000,000 | iQ Media Group LLC is a media intelligence technology provider. | Edison Partners LP |
| Genomind LLC | Norristown, Pa. | Biotechnology | $6,000,000 | Genomind LLC is a United States-based personalized medicine company. | Claritas Capital LLC |
| Picwell Inc. | Philadelphia | Software | $3,999,900 | Picwell, Inc. provides a decision support tool for health plan choice. | MassMutual Ventures LLC,Osage Partners,Undisclosed Firm |
| PeopleLinx Inc. | Philadelphia | Software | $3,500,100 | PeopleLinx LLC offers social business optimization software platform. | Greycroft Partners LLC,Osage Partners,Undisclosed Firm |
| Pollfish Inc. | Wilmington, Del. | Software | $2,500,000 | Pollfish Inc. offers Pollfish, an online survey platform. | Odyssey Venture Partners,Undisclosed Firm,Undisclosed Firm,Undisclosed Firm |
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