Understanding the local market for investments under $5 million is also critical for states that are interested in using the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s State Small Business Credit Initiative to support access to capital for new and young technology companies. Treasury’s rules require that states target investment programs to a deal size of under $5 million and prohibit states from participating in deals greater than $20 million.
Given the market trends, the SSBCI rules will drive states to concentrate their support on the sector of the venture capital market, investments under $5 million, that is receiving far less support from the private markets than the mega deals driving the topline growth trends.
The data provided are state totals by year and deal size for all angel, seed and venture capital investments into companies headquartered in the U.S. The data are from SSTI’s analysis of PitchBook as of Jan. 3, 2022.
A Flourish chartTotals by state and deal size by year are available for download (xlsx).
[1] Small investment rounds are less likely to leave a paper trail for platforms like PitchBook to identify, as reporting may not be required until numerous investors are involved and newer companies may be systematically less likely to publicize a deal than more-established firms. As of Jan. 3, 2022, PitchBook identified about 2,700 more deals in 2021 than in 2020 but about 160 fewer deals under $500,000 and about 50 fewer deals between $500,000 and $1 million. While the number of deals identified as closed in 2021 will increase over time, it is impossible to say, at this point, whether the decline will disappear — 2020’s figures remain below 2019’s figures (by about 170 and 160, respectively).