Largest Investment Deals in 2023
Deals in this table include venture capital, growth equity, venture debt and acquisitions.
Venture Capital Funding
Total VC Raised in the Baltimore MSA
Total VC Raised, Featuring Megadeals
“Megadeal” describes a venture capital raise of $100M or more. Megadeals can be an indicator of more mature ecosystems, but they tend to fluctuate heavily from year to year.
VC Raised in the Baltimore MSA, Compared with Other Ecosystems in 2023
To understand how Baltimore stacks up against other tech ecosystems, we looked at a set of largely post-industrial cities with various population demographics and industry focuses. Note: Detroit and Raleigh CSA’s each cover two large MSAs, amplifying their funding relative to the other cities.
VC Raised in the Baltimore MSA by Industry Group
Since 2017, 83% of all venture capital raised in the Baltimore MSA has gone to healthcare and information technology (IT) startups. For our region, the healthcare vertical attracting the most funding is oncology, and the IT verticals attracting the most funding are cybersecurity, followed by Software as a Service, or SaaS.
Deal Count by Funding Stage
This report shows the flow of VC funding in two ways – one that adheres to PitchBook’s deal types, and one that focuses more on the company stage when the investment takes place. The primary changes include: leveraging the venture series captured by PitchBook and combining early-stage deals less than $1M into the “Pre-seed” type.
PitchBook Stages
UpSurge Stages
Investors in Baltimore MSA Startups 2017 – 2023
Most Active Investors by Stage
We track investors through PitchBook, a valuable tool, though one with limitations. PitchBook primarily sources investor activity from public disclosures and press releases, which often omit investors or only include the lead. Additionally, a change in the company’s location, its name or the name of its investors can all lead to inaccurate totals. UpSurge validated PitchBook deals with local investor information to more accurately portray local-level activity. The comprehensive engagement of some key investors is not well captured by PitchBook; for example, Brown Advisory and the Abell Foundation are active limited partners in Baltimore-based VC funds.
Pre-seed Stage Investors
Seed Stage Investors
Series A Investors
Series B Investors
Series C+ Investors
Series Unknown Investors
Accelerator Activity for Baltimore MSA Startups
An accelerator is a short-term program that provides coaching, mentorship, and sometimes funding to startups, typically in exchange for equity. There are more than a dozen accelerators located within our ecosystem, and Baltimore companies engage with many more outside of our MSA.
Accelerator Deal Count, With and Without Funding
Dollars Raised Through Accelerator Deals
Venture Debt
Data in this section is sourced from PitchBook and augmented with primary source information from the Baltimore ecosystem.