One large agtech financing drove an uptick in North Dakota venture investment this spring, boosting the quarterly statewide funding from $3 million in Q1 to $16.3 million in Q2.

The most recent quarter, April to June, included four North Dakota deals, according to the latest PitchBook-National Venture Capital Association Venture Monitor report.

In the first half of the year, North Dakota recorded $19M in VC deals, up 66% from lackluster 2025.

In the first half of 2026, North Dakota recorded $19.3 million across six deals, up 66% from $11.6 million across six deals during the same period last year. While the increase is notable, 2025 marked a significant low point after several years where North Dakota’s annual venture investment regularly topped $100 million. 

Kodee Furst, a director at 50 South Capital, which manages the North Dakota Growth Fund, believes completed venture deals are only one measure of the state’s startup economy.

“Venture capital data tells an important part of the story, but it’s only one measure of a much broader strategy,” Furst said to Technical.ly. “The work happening across founder support, talent, partnerships and capital formation is expanding North Dakota’s capacity to produce more high-growth companies for years to come.”

One agtech round drove most of Q2

Fargo-based cattle technology company 701x raised a $10 million Series B in June, accounting for about 61% of the total raised by all North Dakota’s startups in the second quarter.

The round was funded entirely by individual investors, according to a 701x press release, including North Dakotans, Minnesotans and ranchers around the country who use its products. No venture capital firms or institutional investors participated.

“Closing an oversubscribed round funded by our neighbors, our community, and our own customers is the kind of validation that means the most to us,” 701x CEO Kevin Biffert said in the release. 

Why did a $673M deal disappear from PitchBook’s North Dakota data?

While reviewing North Dakota’s historical venture data, we spotted something that didn’t look right: PitchBook showed a $673.18 million financing for Fargo-based Edgewood Properties in Q4 2025.

That single transaction would have dwarfed nearly every other venture deal in the state — not just in that quarter, but in all recent recorded history. 

PitchBook’s company profile for Edgewood showed a clue. Between 2018 through 2024, it listed nine different capital raises, and they added up to exactly $673.18 million. What happened? Well, in October 2025, the company added all nine together in one update, filing something called a Form D amendment with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Technical.ly asked PitchBook about the discrepancy. 

After reviewing the underlying filings, PitchBook’s Data Operations team determined that the $678M did, in fact, represent eight years of raises.

PitchBook said it often treats Form D amendment filings like this, as tranches of a single fundraising round. But in most cases, tranched rounds happen over several months rather than several years, so it doesn’t cause an issue.

After Technical.ly pointed out what happened, PitchBook redistributed Edgewood’s financing activity across 2018 through 2024, when the individual tranches actually occurred.

The correction substantially changed North Dakota’s historical venture totals. PitchBook’s original data showed about $692.1 million invested in the state in 2025, including roughly $679.7 million in Q4 alone. Adjusting the Edgewood amount reduced the full-year total to about $19 million and Q4 to about $6.5 million.

This is a reminder that a single misclassified deal can dramatically distort the picture — and that reporters here at Technical.ly will always question when the numbers don’t look right.

The company, which makes smart ear tags and herd-management software for cattle producers, also said it had achieved its first profitable month and was accelerating an international expansion.

The other three transactions were spread across insurance, agriculture and business products.

PitchBook records a $4 million financing for Grand Forks-based Tugboat Solutions, an insurtech company that helps homeowners navigate property insurance claims. Tugboat publicly announced the financing as a $3 million seed round, led by Resilience VC with participation from South Dakota First, gener8tor, Sure Ventures, Acumen, 701 Fund and other investors.

Lilac Agriculture, an NDSU spinout developing microbial crop inoculants, accounted for another $1.68 million.

The fourth deal was a $601,500 financing for Hoefer Group, a Dunseith company developing lightweight recreational vehicles.

Together, the three largest deals accounted for more than 96% of the quarter’s capital. 

“It continues to be encouraging to see regional startups and growth stage companies closing capital rounds,” John Machacek, chief innovation officer at the Greater Fargo Moorhead Economic Development Corporation, told Technical.ly.

North Dakota mirrored national venture trends in one important way: A small number of transactions drove an outsized share of investment.

But the industries receiving that money looked very different. Across the US, PitchBook recorded about $144.9 billion in venture investment in Q2. Anthropic’s $65 billion financing alone represented nearly 45% of the national quarterly total.

While AI dominated the largest national deals, North Dakota’s Q2 funding was concentrated in agriculture-related companies: 701x and Lilac accounted for nearly three-quarters of the state’s venture investment.

What the data doesn’t show

The four completed deals are only one piece of North Dakota’s broader effort to increase the number of companies capable of attracting outside investment.

Furst, of 50 State Capital, said the North Dakota Growth Fund has spent the past five years focused on building long-term capacity, rather than judging the ecosystem by individual funding rounds or particularly strong years.

The fund was created in 2021, when the State Investment Board committed $100 million from North Dakota’s Legacy Fund, a pre-existing fund built from oil and gas tax revenue.  An additional $150 million commitment in 2025 brought the Growth Fund to $250 million.

Under 50 State’s management, the fund invests in companies and private funds with ties to North Dakota across venture capital, growth equity, private credit and other private-market strategies. It’s one of a collection of state resources, noted Machacek of the Greater Fargo Moorhead EDC. He cited the North Dakota Development Fund, LIFT, Innovate ND, the Angel Match Program and Bank of North Dakota.

“This enhances the financial tool chest,” Machacek said.

Gener8tor, a startup accelerator and VC firm that operates in several US cities, expanded into North Dakota in 2022 through a partnership with 50 South Capital. Its North Dakota investment accelerator offers $100,000 investments to five startups per cohort, along with 12 weeks of mentorship and investor connections. Its gBETA programs in Fargo and Grand Forks provide free, non-equity support to earlier-stage companies.

That kind of work can happen months or years before a company closes a round that appears in PitchBook, Furst noted, while founders are developing products, finding customers and preparing to approach investors.

“Durable innovation ecosystems aren’t created by a single funding round or one exceptional year of venture investment,” Furst said. “They are built by consistently expanding the number of entrepreneurs, companies and investors participating in the market, and we believe the fund investments made to date will continue to translate into stronger venture outcomes over time.”