NYC had a record-breaking VC year, and one investor says Boston is 'Goldilocks' for startupsHello and welcome back to our regular morning look at private companies, public markets and the grey space in between.Today, were digging into a host of data concerning the East Coast venture capital scene, specifically looking into the performance of its two key startup markets.Its 12 degrees Fahrenheit as I write this in my office situated between Boston and New York City a perfect vantage point for studying these vibrant tech ecosystems.
Lets see what the data tells us.The information were examining today comes from White Star Capital (often via CBInsights), a venture capital firm that describes itself as transatlantic and takes part in seed, Series A and Series B rounds around the globe.
The group last raised a $180 million fundthat TechCrunch covered here, noting at the time that capital pool was oversubscribed from an initial target of $140 million and would be invested into around 20 new companies from the new fund, writing opening cheques of between $1 million and $6 million.With boots on the ground in New York, White Star cares about the East Coast, so the funds put dossier on the region isnt unexpected.
What it includes, however, is.Well start with NYC and its surprising 2019 before turning to Boston, digging into its super-giant venture totals and hearing from Founder CollectivesEric Paley on the state of things in urban Massachusetts.New York CityWhite Stars report details record-breaking figures for NYCs current year.
Off of effectively flat deal volume (New York City sees around 775 venture deals per year at the moment, or a little more than two per day), the overgrown town should set record venture dollar volume in 2019.Observe the following, astounding chart detailing the abnormality of 2019 from a comparative venture dollar perspective:By smashing 2017s local maximum, 2019 appears set to crush the citys record and rich venture investment totals.
The graphic also manages to point out (somewhat embarrassingly) that Gotham will manage to best a number of European countries aggregate venture dollar investments by itself this year.Thats is a useful bit of context as in the United States, New York City is always Number Two to Silicon Valley.
But, this chart argues, being number two in the number-one market is still a hell of a lot of capital.Putting New York Citys venture into even sharper comparative perspective, observe the following table: