By Nancy Dahlberg
South Florida venture capital tumbled in Q2, even as nationally the market has been finding its footing and there were more dollars going into deals than in Q1, according to the Q2 Pitchbook-NVCA Venture Monitor report released today. And while the number of deals getting done in South Florida was a bright spot last year and in Q1, that wasn’t the case in Q2.
The South Florida picture
For Q2 2024, Pitchbook reported that the Miami-Fort Lauderdale metro area pulled in $361 million, down significantly from the $623.2 million that companies attracted in Q1 of 2024 but was on par with the $377.7 million logged in Q2 2023, according to Pitchbook’s revised data.
Q2 deal count – at 71 deals for South Florida startups – also tumbled from the 106 counted in Q1 in Pitchbook’s report. The count was also down from the 89 deals Pitchbook counted for Q2 of 2023.
Top deals: Some South Florida startups bucked the trends, showing strength amid the down market. According to Pitchbook’s data, here were the top five deals by companies headquartered in the Miami metro area in Q2:
- Majority: The Miami-based fintech raised $67.3 million in a Series B funding round. (Majority, which offers an immigrant-focused banking platform, raised an add-on round of $20 million in Q2, but Pitchbook reports the whole round, which includes funds raised in 2023.)
- FundKite: Another Miami-based fintech raised $25.9 million. FundKite, an online funding platform for small businesses, relocated from New York to Miami in 2022-2023.
- Healing Realty Trust: The Boca Raton-based business productivity company raised a $25 million Series A.
- Payabli: The Miami-based fintech startup that helps SaaS companies get paid raised a $20 million Series A.
- Exowatt: The Miami cleantech company raised a $20 million seed round seed round from investors such as a16z, Atomic, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
Insightec, a medical technology based in both Miami and Israel that’s innovating patient care with focused ultrasound, was not included in Pitchbook’s report but raised a $150 million round in June, which would make it Miami’s largest raise of the year. What’s more asset-tokenization startup Securitize raised a $47 million round led by BlackRock and that was also not included. Together, those rounds would bring our total closer to Q1.
Other significant rounds that were announced in Q2 included $15.5 million for fintech remittance platform Felix Pago; $15 million for West Palm Beach startup Max Retail, with a marketplace for excess inventory; $10.6 million for global location intelligence startup Dataplor; and $10.2 million for adult-content platform Slushy.
Venture reporting lags and all of these figures will be revised over the months, but this provides a snapshot of how South Florida stands now. If activity increases to at least Q1 levels in the last two quarters , the Miami metro area will be on track for results at least close to last year.
In the first half of 2024, according to Pitchbook data, South Florida startups have raised $984.2 million across 176 deals. By my reporting, the Miami-Fort Lauderdale metro area pulled in $2.4 billion in 2023. That was down sharply from the region’s record-breaking $5.8 billion in 2022, when it ranked 7th in the nation and bucked the national downward trend.
There were no exits for South Florida companies recorded for Q2, according to Pitchbook. Refresh Miami’s Miami Tech Dashboard powered by Dealroom includes a handful of private company exits in Q2, including Carevive, but none with exit values.
Stay tuned for my mid-year report with eMerge Americas for much more on the VC front.
The Florida picture
Statewide, according to Pitchbook’s report, Florida companies drew $761.7 million across 140 deals in Q2 2024. That was down from a revised $908.6 million across 159 deals in Q1 2023 and down slightly from $778.2 million a year ago. For the first time in memory, South Florida companies did not draw the majority of the state’s venture dollars. In Q2, South Florida accounted for 47% of the dollars and just over 50% of the deal count.
Top deals around the state in Q1 were led by Threat Locker, an Orlando cybersecurity company, that raised a $115 million Series D round, and M2XEnergy, a cleantech company in the Space Coast, that raised a $40 million Series B.
In the first half of 2024, Florida companies have raised $1.67 billion in venture capital across 299 deals, according to Pitchbook data. If the pace holds, the state could exceed last year’s total. By my reporting, in 2023 Florida companies raised $3.5 billion in venture capital across 673 deals.
Like in South Florida, there were no exits recorded for other areas of the state by Pitchbook in Q2.
The national picture
Nationally, all things considered, the picture is significantly brighter and Q2 data “shows an uptick in US venture deal momentum,” the report said. In Q2, $55.6 billion was invested across an estimated 4,226 deals, which would be the highest level since Q2 2022. The quarterly deal value also reached an eight-quarter high. However, a few outsized deals propped up the elevated deal value during the quarter. Indeed, just two deals – CoreWeave’s $8.6 billion Series C and xAI’s $6.0 billion Series B – made up 26.3% of Q2’s total deal value. Notably, Q2 saw the largest early-stage deal count nationally since Q1 2022.
It’s still too soon to definitely declare a rebound, the report said, because exits still remain elusive and the activity was largely driven by small deals. Just $23.6 billion in exit value was generated, less than in Q1. The IPO market has faltered in its restart, despite two high profile IPOs in the first month of the quarter. For VC returns to see an increase, large tech companies must begin to list publicly at a higher pace than we have seen through the first half of the year. Exit value is pacing better than both 2022 and 2023, yet outside of those years, the market is facing its lowest exit total since 2016.
“VCs are increasingly turning to alternative liquidity options to combat the sluggish exit environment and many are pulling back from fundraising altogether. Managers that have been unable to provide distributions to LPs or a lengthy track record of performance are struggling to raise new funds as LPs closely examine underlying assets of their portfolios, and are considering putting dollars to work in other strategies like buyouts and credit,” said Nizar Tarhuni, vice president of Institutional Research & Editorial at PitchBook.
What’s more, Tarhuni said, the market is seeing a lot of hype in AI. “Some would argue this is a bright spot for dealmaking, but we’re seeing glimpses of low-diligence deals getting done that might pose risks to fund returns down the road. Given the factors at play, this market will likely continue to be challenging for VC fundraising, and, in turn, startups looking to raise capital.”
US fundraising shows the impact of the lengthened slowdown, with just $37.4 billion in commitments in the first half of the year. The totals have been led by large, name-brand firms. Of that total, more than $7 billion was raised by Andreessen Horowitz, another $3 billion by both Norwest Venture Partners and TCV. Billion-dollar funds have been raised, but potentially at the expense of smaller, emerging managers, the report said.
Still, “American Venture Capital is finding its footing in 2024,” said National Venture Capital Association President and CEO Bobby Franklin.
“With steadily increasing deal values, especially across early stage investments, more first-time financings, and increased crossover investor participation, Q2 24 was a good one for VC,” Franklin adds. “Now it’s up to founders, investors, and regulators to support, rather than stifle, these green shoots as the market heads toward a recovery.”
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