August snaps 12-month streak of $1B in early-stage funding

With $986 million, it was the first time early stage funding was less than $1B since July 2014

Just when you thought $1 billion was the new standard of monthly investment into early-stage financing, the numbers tipped backwards. 

After July saw the largest single month of early-stage dollars raised in at least two years, August plummeted to the lowest funding level since July of 2014, according to a report from CB Insights.

With just $986 million across 429 deals, August broke a 12-month streak of at least $1 billion in early stage dollars. It was down significantly from the $1.85 billion across 504 deals in July, and the $1.3 billion across 490 deals in June.

The last time there was less than $1 billion in early stage tech funding was in July of 2014. Last month did not, however reach the lowest number of deals in that time frame; that belongs to May of this year, when there were only 395 deals. 

The median round size during August stayed the same as it had been in July, $1.25 million, which is its lowest figure since February 2014.

Internet startups are doing fine, as they accounted for 51% of funding dollars that went to early-stage tech companies in August, and 58 of the deals. That ended three months of falling dollar share. Mobile companies took 26% funding share, and had 30% of the deals for just the third time over the last three years.

The top six early stage deals of the month were:

• The biggest deal was Flexport, a platform for global trade, which raised a $20 million round from Peter Thiel, along with A-Grade Investments, Bloomberg Beta, Cherubic Ventures, First Round Capital, Fuel Capital, FundersClub, Google Ventures, Susa Ventures, Y Combinator, Ceyuan Ventures, Felicis Ventures, and Fenway Summer.

• Virtualization company RIFT.io raised a $16 million series A round of funding, led by North Bridge Venture Partners with participation from other strategic investors.

• Gaming-focused startup castAR raised a $15 million Series A round led by Playground Global Ventures.

• Hybrid cloud company Velostrata raised $14 million in a Series A funding round led by Norwest Venture Partners and Greylock IL Partners (83North).

• Talena, a Big Data Availability Management company, raised $12 million from Canaan Partners, Intel Capital, ONSET Ventures and Wipro Ventures.

• Edtech startup Panorama Education, raised a $12 million Series A round, from Owl Ventures and Spark Capital. 

The top 10 deals during the cumulatively raised $131 million.

(Image source: dalmacijanews.hr)