Summer dip: Maryland companies raised $142M in Q3

Venture capital funding totals took a summer slide locally in 2019, as Maryland recorded $142 million over 16 deals. That’s according to the latest MoneyTree report from PwC and CB Insights.

That’s down about 38% from the second quarter, when companies raised a total of $231 million over 21 deals. It’s also a drop year-over-year, as Q3 of 2018 saw totals of $255 million raised over 21 deals.

“Maryland, just like the region as a whole, is significantly off the mark from last year,” said Brad Phillips, director of emerging company services for PwC.

However, it’s not nearly as low as the Q1 2019 total of $73 million raised, which was the lowest since 2016.

Like last quarter, a biotech company out of Gaithersburg paced all companies, as cell therapy company Arcellx raised $42 million. Doubling down on the other big sector of the technology industry, Bowie-based Trinity Cyber’s $23 million raise was the second-largest. Frederick-based cell manufacturing technology company RoosterBio rounded out the top three with a total of $21.5 million raised.

Baltimore also saw a dip in funding in the third quarter, with half as many deals (four) as Q2, and a total of $30 million raised.

Yet there were still some eye-catching rounds for the city, as Fells Point-based healthcare analytics company Protenus closed a $17 million Series C, while AI-for-workforce development company Catalyte raised $10.66 million. In Annapolis, cellular and satellite data company EVERYWHERE Communications posted $6.1 million in a Series A.

Typically, bigger funding totals in Maryland are paced by particularly large deals. With that lower total, Phillips has talked about how it tends to be a “choppiness” to the quarter-to-quarter totals.

“If we don’t have large deals we tend to have difficulty keeping up with a quarter where there was a large deal,” he said.

Still, Maryland continues to be a big contributor to DMV funding totals: The state’s companies had four of the top five deals in the region, and 43% of the region’s total $246 million haul.

Notably, there’s been an uptick in the fourth quarter over the last two years, so we’ll be on the lookout for a clutch performance to bring the decade to a close.