In the 2014 fiscal year, $50 billion in venture funding was invested in 5,900 companies – an average of $8.5 million per deal. Mattermark’s annual report on startup activity recently ranked the biggest funding rounds from 2014, and many startups raised much more than that.
The Mattermark 2014 Startup Traction Report, released last December, includes a wealth of data on the fastest-growing startups, regions, and industries (get it for $99). They used data from public sources like Crunchbase, AngelList, NASDAQ, the SEC, and the White House Office of Management & Budget, as well as private relationships they have with investors and entrepreneurs. Everything was measured for the 2014 fiscal year, which covers October 2013-September 2014.
Below are the top deals broken down by stage: seed, Series A, Series B, Series C, Series D, and late stage. In this case, of course, Mattermark could only include deals where the amount of funding was disclosed:
5 biggest seed rounds in 2014:
1. Kensho ($10 million)
Kensho is an analytics platform that leverages massively-parallel statistical computing, user-friendly visual interfaces, and breathroughs in unstructured data engineering to answer complex financial questions.
Investors: Work-Bench, Google Ventures, Devonshire Investors, New Enterprise Associates, Accel Partners, General Catalyst Partners
2. YouScience ($8.5 million)
YouScience helps young adults make decisions regarding academic and professional opportunities through Latitude, an online assessment tool that evaluates scientifically-valid aptitudes, interests and career options.
Investors: LaunchTN, other individual and institutional investors
3. The Levo League ($7 million)
Levo League is a community of professional women who seek and offer advice, inspiration and other tools to promote career development.
Investors: Veronique Morali, Lubna Olayan
4. Navdy ($6.5 million)
Navdy has developed a transparent Head-Up Display (HUD) which projects directions, messaging, audio and other information to drivers.
Investors: Kima Ventures, Golden Venture Partners, Rubicon Venture Capital, Haystack, MESA+, Lightbank, Ludlow Ventures, Upfront Ventures
5. Avaamo ($6.3 million)
Avaamo is an enterprise mobile messaging application which enables colleagues to securely and efficiently communicate.
Investors: WI Harper Group, Rembrandt Venture Partners, Streamlined Ventured, Rajeev Madhavan, Raj Singh, Raj Sandhu, Atiq Raza, Eric Chen, Hiro Maeda, Jay Sethuram
5 biggest Series A rounds in 2014:
1. Juno Therapeutics ($145 million)
Juno Therapeutics is a clinical-stage company developing novel cell-based immunotherapies that genetically engineer T cells to recognize and kill cancer cells.
Investors: ARCH Venture Partners, Alaska Permanent Fund, Bezos Expeditions, Venrock
2. Mozido ($103.5 million)
Mozido provides financial and marketing services to users. Through the MoTEAF platform, users can manage their money from their mobile phone instead of through traditional financial institutions.
Investors: TomorrowVentures, Brentwood Investments, Atlanticus Corporation, Bob Turner, Wellington Management
3. Oscar ($80 million)
Oscar aims to revolutionize health insurance by utilizing technology, design and data to humanize healthcare.
Investors: Joe Lonsdale, Jim Breyer, Stanley Druckenmiller, Founders Fund, General Catalyst Partners, Khosla Ventures, Thrive Capital
4. Human Longevity ($70 million)
Human Longevity is a genomics, cell-therapy diagnostics and therapeutics company which focuses on extending the healthy, high- performance human lifespan.
Investors: K.T. Lim, Illumina, Tan Sri Lim Kok Thay, DFJ Venture
5. ZipRecruiter ($63 million)
ZipRecruiter enables small businesses and recruiters to make better hiring decisions by using machine learning algorithms to identify the right candidates.
Investors: Industry Ventures, Basepoint Ventures, Institutional Venture Partners
5 biggest Series B rounds in 2014:
1. Wayfair ($157 million)
Wayfair is the largest online retailer of home furnishings and decor, across all styles and price points.
Investors: T. Rowe Price, Julie M.B. Bradley
2. Qualtrics ($150 million)
Qualtrics offers a survey-based platform that helps organizations gain enterprise-wide understanding of customer and employee sentiment.
Investors: Sequoia, Accel Partners, Insight Venture Partners
3. Pluralsight ($135 million)
Pluralsight offers the largest online library of technological and creative training programs; it provides flexible and cost-effective subscription plans for individuals and businesses.
Investors: Sorenson Capital, Iconiq Capital, Insight Venture Partners
4. Juno Therapeutics ($134 million)
Juno Therapeutics is a clinical-stage company developing novel cell-based immunotherapies that genetically engineer T cells to recognize and kill cancer cells.
Investors: ARCH Venture Partners, Alaska Permanent Fund, Bezos Expeditions, Venrock
5. Flatiron Health ($130 million)
Flatiron Health operates the oncology industry’s first cloud-based data platform, combining genomic and clinical treatment and outcomes data to accelerate the development of targeted therapies.
Investors: Google Ventures, First Round Capital, Laboratory Corporation of America
5 biggest Series C rounds in 2014:
1. Dropbox ($350 million)
Dropbox is a file-hosting service offering cloud storage, file synchronization, personal cloud and client software.
Investors: BlackRock, T. Rowe Price, Morgan Stanley Investment Management
2. Automattic ($160 million)
Automattic offers a network of web services for online publishers including WordPress.com, VIP Hosting and Support, VaultPress, Akismet and more.
Investors: Insight Venture Partners, Chris Sacca, True Ventures, Tiger Global Management, Iconiq Capital, Endurance International Group
3. Domo ($125 million)
Domo is a cloud-based executive management platform that allows users to directly access business information in one place and in real time.
Investors: Institutional Venture Partners, Greylock Partners, GGV Capital, Dragoneer Investment Group, Viking Venture Management, Morgan Stanley, Fidelity Investments, T. Rowe Price, Mercato Partners, TPG Growth, Salesforce.com
4. Hyla Mobile ($105 million)
Hyla Mobile is a leading provider of mobile device trade-in and reuse solutions, committed to extending the life cycle of mobile devices.
Investors: Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Silver Lake Kraftwerk, OpenAir Equity Partners, SJF Ventures, NGEN Partners, RRE Ventures, TAP Advisors
5. InsideSales.com ($100 million)
InsideSales.com offers a cloud-based sales acceleration platform that enhances the performance of sales teams through communications, gamification, predictive analytics, and data visualization technologies.
Investors: Polaris Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Salesforce.com, Acadia Woods Partners, EPIC Ventures, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, U.S. Venture Partners, Zetta Venture Partners
5 biggest Series D rounds in 2014:
1. Uber ($1.2 billion)
Uber is a real-time ridesharing and transportation service that seamlessly connects riders to drivers through its applications.
Investors: Wellington Management, Fidelity Investments, Summit Partners, BlackRock, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Google Ventures, Menlo Ventures
2. Airbnb ($475 million)
Airbnb is a vacation rental marketplace through which guests may rent unique accommodations from local hosts in more than 190 countries.
Investors: Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz
3. Tango ($280 million)
Tango is a text, voice, and video messaging application and entertainment platform that enables users to easily and spontaneously connect with friends and family.
Investors: Alibaba Group Holding, Access Industries, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Jerry Yang
4. Lyft ($250 million)
Lyft is a ride-sharing company that allows drivers to turn their vehicles into ad-hoc taxis.
Investors: Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund, Mayfield Fund, Coatue Management, Alibaba Group Holding, Third Point
5. Nutanix ($101 million)
Nutanix delivers web-scale converged infrastructure to medium and large enterprises with its software-drive Virtual Computing Platform.
Investors: Riverwood Capital, SAP Ventures, Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital, Greenspring Associates, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Khosla Ventures, Battery Ventures
5 biggest late-stage rounds in 2014:
1. Cloudera ($900 million)
Cloudera offers an enterprise data hub built on Apache Hadoop through which enterprises can store, access, process, secure and analyze their data.
Investors: Intel Capital, T.Rowe Price, Google Ventures, MSD Capital
2. Spotify ($250 million)
Spotify is a commercial music streaming service that provides digital rights management-restricted content from record labels to listeners.
Investors: Technology Crossover Ventures
3. Pure Storage ($225 million)
Pure Storage is an all-flash enterprise storage company whose arrays are ideal for high performance workloads including server and/or desktop virtualization, database, and cloud computing.
Investors: T. Rowe Price, Tiger Global Management, Wellington Management, Greylock Partners, Index Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Sutter Hill Ventures
4. Pinterest ($200 million)
Pinterest is a visual discovery application through which users can create social scrapbooks.
Investors: Andreessen Horowitz, SV Angel, Bessemer Venture Partners, Fidelity Investments, FirstMark Capital, Valiant Capital Partners
5. Millennial Media ($175 million)
Millennial Media is a mobile ad tech platform that enables advertisers to target and deliver ad experiences to consumers on their mobile- connected devices.
Investors: Bessemer Venture Partners, Columbia Capital