Which North Carolina startups raised the most money in 2020? Here are the biggest deals.
When coronavirus cases first started mounting across the U.S. earlier this year, it wasn’t clear what sort of effect it would have on the state’s burgeoning ecosystem for business startups.
But as the pandemic continued, startups for the most part have been able to continue to raise money from investors, according to research from PitchBook, a venture capital research company.
Many tech companies have benefited from companies investing in new technologies during the pandemic, and low interest rates and an abundance of money flowing into financial markets have created a “positive trickle-down effect for startups,” according to PitchBook’s research.
This has been especially true for established startups in the software and biotechnology industries.
At The News & Observer’s request, PitchBook compiled a list of the year’s largest venture capital investments in North Carolina, as of Dec. 1. The N&O supplemented PitchBook’s data with its own reporting.
Here are the top deals in North Carolina:
16. Apiture ($20 million)
Apiture, the newest financial technology startup to emerge from Live Oak Bank in Wilmington, N.C., completed its $20 million round from investors in July.
Founded in 2017, Apiture is growing rapidly and already has more than 200 employees on Live Oak’s campus
The startup focuses on cloud solutions to legacy banking software. It has a large partnership with the company Finxact to create an alternative to the core software that banks use to process deposits, loans and most of the transactions that take place across banks.
The company’s investors include funds managed by T. Rowe Price Associates and Nashville-based Pinnacle Bank.
15. CData Software ($20.3 million)
Chapel Hill-based CData raised its money in March, when uncertainty surrounding the pandemic was perhaps at its highest in the U.S.
The startup, led by Amit Sharma, makes software that helps companies manage databases across cloud networks.
CData raised the money from Washington, D.C.-based Updata Partners. PitchBook pegs CData’s valuation at $61.4 million.
14. Bryn Pharma ($26 million)
Bryn Pharma is a Raleigh-based medical device startup with an experimental nasal spray that it hopes will become an alternative to EpiPen, the injectable device that many people with allergies depend on.
In 2019, the medical device startup earned a Fast Track designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as it attempts to win approval from the regulator, the Triangle Business Journal reported.
Its $26 million round, raised in June, is being used to fund its quest to take its nasal spray to market. California venture capital firm Soundproof Ventures led the round.
13. Teamworks ($26.7 million)
Founded by a former Duke University offensive lineman, Durham-based Teamworks has grown significantly in the past decade thanks to its scheduling and communication platform for student and professional athletes.
Dan Williams, a partner at Delta-v Capital, told The N&O in April that he invested in Teamworks because he believes that the pandemic will cause sports teams to invest more in software platforms. More than 2,500 teams around the world use the company’s services now, including more than 2,000 Division I college teams and a third of National Football League and National Basketball Association teams.
“Prior to this pandemic, Teamworks’ customers raved about their product,” Williams said, “but like Zoom, it has become even more mission critical at a time when sports organizations are operating in a remote environment.”
12. Avadim Health ($27.6 million)
Asheville-based Avadim is one of the few startups not based in Charlotte or the Triangle to make the list. The company raised $27.6 million from investors in June after it postponed a planned initial public offering in the spring.
The health care company makes nonprescription topical antiseptics and pain relievers.
11. Virtue Labs ($28.6 million)
Raleigh-based Virtue Labs has gained a lot of attention in recent years for its hair, skin and nail treatments, with the company even enlisting actress Jennifer Garner to promote its products.
Founded by Melisse Shaban in 2013, the company repurposed a keratin protein-based technology that was meant to treat wounded soldiers. Experimentation in the lab showed it to be beneficial to hair.
It closed its $28.6 million investment round in November.
10. Metabolon ($29.5 million)
Founded in 2000, Morrisville biotechnology firm Metabolon makes precision medicines based around metabolomics, small molecules that can be used to diagnose diseases.
The ultimate goal is to find individualized medicine that takes into account a patient’s environment, lifestyle and genetics.
Its most recent funding came in September, and the company’s investors include EW Healthcare Partners and Perceptive Advisors. PitchBook says the company’s valuation is $204.5 million.
9. Sense Photonics ($32.1 million)
Durham lidar startup Sense Photonics has gained a lot of momentum in 2020. Since April, the company has hired a former Google executive as its CEO; grown its headcount from around 50 to 70 employees; and raised its funding totals from investors to more than $32 million.
The company, which also has a presence in San Francisco, makes tools that help vehicles and other machines see. Lidar uses pulses of laser light to measure the distance and shapes of objects, and it is considered fundamental to a future world where cars and other vehicles drive themselves.
The company is investing most of its money in research and development as well as beefing up its sales team. PitchBook puts the company’s valuation at $82.1 million
8. Well Dot Inc. ($40 million)
Chapel Hill-based Well is growing at a rapid pace. The company, which was founded by former Aetna executives, promises to hire 400 employees in the college town in the next four years.
A fresh $40 million from investors that came this December should help it reach that goal.
So will the large companies that have signed on to use its artificially intelligent platform, which operates like an on-demand health care expert for a company’s employees.
7. CoImmune ($45 million)
Founded in 2019, Durham biotech startup CoImmune makes cell-based therapeutics to treat cancer as well as autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.
The company currently has three experimental therapies in its pipeline. Its investors include Brain Asset Management, Korea Investment Partners and several others.
“With this new round of capital, CoImmune is well positioned to accelerate the development and advancement of our lead (therapies),” Charles Nicolette, the company’s CEO, said in November. “These proceeds will allow us to initiate six planned clinical trials with three products by 2022.”
6. ServiceTrade ($49 million)
The pandemic seems to be providing a boost for ServiceTrade, the Durham maker of a cloud-based platform that helps maintenance companies schedule and dispatch technicians, produce online quotes and track historical data.
The startup brought in a record number of new customers at the beginning of the year. That led to a big injection of cash in August from Durham’s Bull City Venture Partners and the Charlotte-based growth-equity firm Frontier Growth.
“Even when (our customers’ businesses) are slowing down, a lot of them are taking an opportunity to apply some improvement projects,” ServiceTrade CEO and cofounder Billy Marshall told The N&O earlier this year. “Particularly, they are looking at things like ServiceTrade that allows them to do work without going into the office. Email is a poor substitute for a highly tuned app for sharing information.”
5. Atsena Therapeutics (63.2 million)
Atsena Therapeutics is the youngest company on the list. It was founded just this summer after it acquired the rights to a gene therapy treatment from the University of Florida.
But investors are already piling on, and the company has raised two separate rounds worth a total of $63.2 million since it started.
Gene therapy is one of the hottest industries in the Triangle at the moment, and it isn’t showing signs of slowing down.
4. Modern Energy ($72.8 million)
Modern Energy, a Durham-based energy investment firm, has an aggressive goal: to create a net-zero-carbon economy by 2050.
It’s taking on loads of money from investors to do it, bringing in nearly $73 million in July.
In recent years, the firm has focused on investing in solar, wind and energy storage projects across the world. For example, it has poured money into its solar energy subsidiary, Faro Energy, which has built several solar energy installations in Brazil.
The company, led by Mark Laabs and Benjamin Abram, plans to use its money to support similar projects or to invest in other emerging green technologies.
3. Shattuck Labs ($118 million)
In June, Durham-based Shattuck Labs, which makes cancer treatments, raised a whopping $118 million from investors like Hatteras Venture Partners.
By October, it was the Triangle’s newest publicly traded company, raising more than $200 million in an IPO.
Led by CEO Taylor Schreiber, Shattuck has offices split between Texas and the Parmer RTP campus in Research Triangle Park. All of the company’s science and laboratories — as well as Schreiber — are based in Durham.
2. AvidXchange ($572.9 million)
Charlotte-based AvidXchange is one of the largest startups in the state thanks to its accounts payable automation software. The company is led by Michael Praeger, and its investors include Mastercard and PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel.
In 2020, the company raised a huge amount of money from investors ($572.9 million) across three separate rounds of investments.
It appears to have good reasons to solidify its standing. The company is expected to go public with an IPO next year, according to Forbes.
AvidXchange has more than 1,000 employees in Charlotte, and Reuters reported earlier this year it has a valuation of $2 billion.
1. Epic Games ($1.8 billion)
It might be tough to classify a company founded in the 1990s as a startup, but Epic Games continues to aggressively raise money like one.
Just two years removed from raising $1.25 billion, the Fortnite maker returned to the well in 2020 and brought in another $1.8 billion from investors, raising its valuation to $17.3 billion.
The company is by far the most valuable venture-capital-backed company in the state, and Tim Sweeney, its founder and CEO, is edging closer to being the richest person in North Carolina.
This year’s billion-dollar raise turned out to be important, though, as it has shielded the company from losses related to its much-watched legal battle with iPhone maker Apple.
This story was produced with financial support from a coalition of partners led by Innovate Raleigh as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work. Learn more; go to bit.ly/newsinnovate
This story was originally published December 16, 2020 at 7:30 AM with the headline "Which North Carolina startups raised the most money in 2020? Here are the biggest deals.."
