5 things to know about Maryland’s kickass quarter in VC funding

When it comes to venture capital investments in Maryland companies, the state had its best quarter in nearly 10 years to close out 2015.

That’s according to a report issued Friday by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), based on data from Thomson Reuters. The report comes out nationally every quarter, but the year-end report proves to be a particularly useful snapshot.
Here are five insights we gleaned:

1. Highest since 2006

The last time companies were raising money like this, Miley Cyrus was still Hannah Montana. Maryland companies reeled in a total of $451.3 million in 14 deals, the report states. That’s the highest total since the second quarter of 2006, when 33 deals netted $406.3 million. Fun fact: The Q4 2015 total also beats out yearly investment totals for 2011, 2012 and 2014.

2. Tenable was a huge factor, but it was still a strong finish

More than half of the big number for the last quarter of 2015 came from Tenable Network Security’s record-breaking $250-million Series B round. But even if you back that off, it’s still higher than the totals for each of the first three quarters of 2015.

3. Strong showing from Baltimore

Other Baltimore companies reported in the top 10 for the fourth quarter include ZeroFOX’s $27 million Series B, WellDoc’s $22 million Series B and Personal Genome Diagnostics’ $20 million Series B.

4. Tech-focused

In all, eight of the top 10 deals in the state came from companies in the tech space.

5. Fourth-quarter surge

The big fourth quarter also propelled the state to its highest overall VC number since 2006. This year, the total was about $820 million. In 2006, the grand total was about $843 million. (Get this: The year 2000 saw 178 deals for a whopping $1.96 billion, according to PwC/NVCA data.)