Fewer deals, larger investments in Michigan Q3 venture capital deals

Venture capital investors made fewer deals in Michigan during the third quarter than the same period a year earlier, although the amount invested more than tripled.

VC firms invested $169.6 million in 26 deals in Michigan from July to September, according to a quarterly report from Pitchbook.com and the National Venture Capital Association. That compares to 30 deals for $53.1 million in the third quarter of 2017.

The top Michigan deal listed in the quarterly report was for Detroit-based online retailer StockX Inc., which received $44 million from Detroit Venture Partners; Battery Ventures in Boston; CourtsideVC, which has offices in Detroit and New York City; and a number of individual investors.

The lone West Michigan deal during the quarter was in September, a $10 million investment by Princeton, N.J.-based Edison Partners in Grand Rapids-based enterprise software developer Blue Medora LLC.

Through three quarters of 2018, venture capital investing in Michigan totaled $389.8 million through 79 deals, versus 80 deals for $255.7 million through the first nine months of 2017.

Nationwide, venture capital investing topped $27.8 billion for the quarter through 1,937 deals. That compares to 2,240 deals for $24.1 billion in the same period a year earlier.

Year-to-date, venture capital investing in the U.S. totals 6,583 deals for $84.3 billion, compared to 7,061 deals for $62.0 billion through nine months of 2017. Investors also put more money into larger, later-stage capital rounds through deals.

“The first three quarters of 2018 show that the investment environment for venture-backed companies is the strongest it has been in well over a decade,” said Bobby Franklin, president and CEO of NVCA. “The ongoing trend of concentration of capital into fewer, larger investments appear to be the new status quo for the venture industry – not a passing phase as was once believed. We see this transformative shift reverberating across all stages and sectors.”