Louisiana VC deal count nears record high in 2025, as funding takes a dip

While Louisiana startups closed out the year with a strong Q4, the total capital invested across the state came in well below recent years. On the upside, the number of deals in Louisiana hit a near-record high in 2025, showing momentum in early-stage deals. 

That’s the takeaway from the first-ever Louisiana edition of Technical.ly’s recurring feature that looks at deal flow by region and state according to the quarterly Venture Monitor report from PitchBook and the National Venture Capital Association.

In Q4 2025, Louisiana companies landed $41.7 million across 13 deals. That total raise is close to 4x the prior quarter, though only two-thirds of last year’s Q4 total. Deal count, meanwhile, doubled quarter over quarter and grew 20% year over year.  

Kwamena Aidoo, cofounder of New Orleans-based early-stage VC firm Corridor Ventures, described Louisiana as a growing but still maturing ecosystem. 

“We don’t yet have a ton of funds here,” Aidoo told Technical.ly. “We have founders that are building here, and other founders that migrate elsewhere to raise.”

Software startups account for a large share of Louisiana deals, but other sectors such as energy and agriculture technology attract bigger funding rounds. Healthcare, food and consumer-oriented companies also contribute to the state’s startup activity.

Across 2025, the state had 38 VC deals and $83.9 million in total capital invested overall, among the highest annual deal counts recorded in Louisian: 2023 was the only year with a higher count in the past decade, per the Venture Monitor data.

That year marked an inflection point for Louisiana, Aidoo said, because it’s when State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI)-backed funds began to come online. “That last three-year trend in particular is what’s most interesting,” he said. “That’s when we started announcing these SSBCI funds.”

Tony Zanders, CEO of the Baton Rouge-based business incubator Nexus Louisiana, believes the state’s VC environment is reflective of national trends.

“The sentiment among local investors is that Louisiana is mirroring national behavior, just at a smaller scale: fewer speculative bets, more emphasis on traction, and a willingness to fund companies solving real world problems,” Zanders said. 

“That dynamic tends to favor regions like ours,” he added, “when we’re disciplined about supporting founders who are building durable, revenue-driven businesses.”

Regional ecosystems play different roles within the state

New Orleans last year accounted for nearly 60% of Louisiana’s startup activity by number, closing 21 of the 38 deals, and netting more than half the total capital raised. 

That’s actually a lower statewide share than in recent years, but NOLA is considered a region on the rise. It was recently ranked the nation’s No. 14 innovation ecosystems in the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center’s Advancing Regional Innovation Economies report.

New Orleans’ startup scene is a mix of software and technology companies and energy, climate and engineering sectors, alongside its creative and cultural industries. While there’s less local investment capital than in larger tech hubs, the city has built a support system that helps founders start and grow companies at a national level.

While total dollars have varied from year to year, recent deal counts in New Orleans suggest a steadier pace of activity than in the mid-2010s, when deals were fewer and less consistent.

Baton Rouge plays a different role. That region recorded $4.6 million across five deals in 2025, reflecting a smaller but ongoing venture presence compared with New Orleans. 

Over the past decade, investment there has tended to come in occasional bursts rather than a steady stream. One of the most notable spikes came in Q4 2019, when funding jumped to $14.1 million, around the time Baton Rouge-based Waitr acquired Bite Squad, drawing national attention.

While VC activity is smaller and more uneven, Baton Rouge contributes to Louisiana’s ports and energy infrastructure, with one of the nation’s busiest inland port systems. Its connection to the oil and gas supply chain has helped draw federal support, and it’s the center of the NSF-backed FUEL Engine, which has brought millions of federal dollars and sparked collaboration for energy projects across Louisiana.

Put it all together, and stakeholders in the state are optimistic. Unlike earlier peaks, Louisiana’s 2025 totals were not driven by a few mega-rounds, noted Aidoo of Corridor Ventures. 

“In 2022 we had some big deals that, if you’re looking at these charts, make it look like we’re down from our peak,” Aidoo said. “But if you normalize for the big deals that happened in 2022, the general trend in New Orleans and Louisiana is still promising.”