Let’s be honest. 2020 wasn’t the best year for VC funding and investment in the U.S. – much less in Colorado. However, 2021 was record-shattering both nationally and especially in the Rocky Mountain region.
As we’ve seen the impacts of the pandemic play out in dramatic movements & activity – the great resignation, the great migration, monstrous valuations, oversized rounds, an uptick in newly minted funds, unicorns popping up at an average of 10 a week, and a surge in special-appointed funds backing diverse & underrepresented entrepreneurs – it’s clear that Colorado is just a microcosm of the macro.
Of the 15 most active funds nationally, 5 of those firms topped the list for most pre-seed and growth stage investment here in Colorado – Y Combinator, SOSV, Tiger Global & Insight Partners. However, local seed stage firms still dominate the early-stage game demonstrating that the early, local markets are still a relationship game for now.
We can see also the effects of socio-political currents in the funding – women founders accounted for 3 of the top 10 largest deals in 2021, closing the highest amount of funding to date. Nationally, startups founded solely by women raised nearly $6.4 billion of venture funding in 2021, 83% higher than the total raised in 2020.
We partnered with OEDIT to crunch the numbers and analyze venture capital & investment activity in Colorado in 2021. We utilized OEDIT data for this report.
583
venture deals
$6.8B
total funding
$4.5B
exits
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2021 stats on VC funding in Colorado:
- Compared to 2020, 2021 saw a 2.2x increase in total funding
- The largest deal size ($1.4B) increased by 155% compared to 2020 ($549M)
- The median deal size increased by 63.6% from 2020 to 2021
- Colorado ranks #7 in the nation for total amount of VC Deals
What’s new?
New Colorado unicorns as of 2021
Sondermind, DispatchHealth, Uplight, Matillion, JumpCloud, Hotel Engine, AgentSync, Sierra Space & Veho all joined the unicorn class. Check out DBJ’s coverage on these new additions.
VC-backed exits increased
SpotX, an adtech company, exited for $1.3B, EverCommerce went public, & four SPACs were formed.
Definition of Key Terms
Pre-seed consists of grants, pre-seed and angel rounds.
Seed-stage consists of seed & seed+.
Early-stage consists of Series A and Series B rounds.
Late-stage consists of Series C, Series D, Series E and later-lettered venture rounds following the “Series [Letter]” naming convention. Also included are venture rounds of unknown series, corporate venture and other rounds above $15 million.
If you’re a tech company looking for early stage VC funding, reach out to us!
