Northwest VC funding strong despite dip from previous quarter

Venture capital funding in the Pacific Northwest during the first quarter of 2015 declined from the previous quarter, but Stephen Sommerville, Pacific Northwest emerging company services leader at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), sees a silver lining.

Calling it one of the best first quarters in years, Sommerville characterized it as robust activity that speaks to a very healthy ecosystem in the venture funding community.

According to the quarterly MoneyTree Report from PwC and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), 30 companies in the Pacific Northwest received $381 million in funding during the first quarter. While the figure represents a 13 percent decrease in funding from the fourth quarter of 2014, it is fairly typical of first-quarter funding, which traditionally lags behind activity during the rest of the year.

With several funding deals exceeding $50 million across a variety of sectors, Sommerville says the first-quarter MoneyTree Report signals a positive VC funding experience for 2015 going forward. The largest investments in the region, Sommerville says, went to Seattle-based Porch.com ($65.9 million), Bellevue-based Donuts Inc. ($54.1 million) and Boise-based Cradlepoint Inc. ($40 million).

Nationally, the MoneyTree Report, which is based on data from ThomsonReuters, shows venture capitalists invested $13.4 billion in more than 1,000 deals in the first quarter.