DC-area companies raised $1.3B in VC funding in the third quarter. Here are the top 10 deals

With over a billion dollars raised in the third quarter, DC companies are still well on their way to finishing the year strong when it comes to venture capital.

In the D.C. area, companies raised about $1.32 billion across 63 deals in the third quarter, according to data from the PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor, a quarterly report produced by PitchBook and the National Venture Capital Association with support from Silicon Valley Bank and Affinity.

This comes in slightly lower than Q2, which saw $1.38 billion raised across 79 deals. To clarify: as deals often don’t close until weeks after the report is released, this was actually even higher than the $1.27 billion that we reported in July, so this leaves room for Q3 to come out even stronger.

The Q3 total is also still higher than the $1.1 billion raised in Q1, and a huge leap from the $484 million the Venture Monitor reported was raised in the third quarter of 2020.

All in all, the DMV is still pushing forward to have one of its best years for venture capital funding ever.

Deals in DC proper bumped up to $631 million invested across 22 deals. Compared to the $530 million invested across 27 deals in the second quarter, this means deals in Q3 were higher on average. (Again, the Q2 number is also now higher than the originally-reported $459 million invested across 25 deals). And it’s higher than the third quarter of 2020, when there was $354 million invested across 18 deals.

The big overall numbers are fitting for a quarter in which we could hardly keep up with the Money Moves. There were practically never-before-seen moments, like Arcadia and ID.me both raising $100 million in the same day (though the latter debt funding round was not listed in this report). Interos, the Arlington, Virginia-based supply chain risk management company, on the other hand, reached unicorn status following a raise led by San Francisco’s NightDragon.

On top of funding, the area saw two exits that were listed in the report in Q3: Centreville, Virginia-based Parsons Corporation’s acquisition of Herndon’s BlackHorse Solutions and McLean, Virginia-based IronNet’s merger with LGL Systems in a SPAC deal. In a deal that didn’t appear in the report and occurred toward the last day of the quarter, IonQ, the College Park quantum computing firm, also made an eye-catching debut on the public market with a SPAC merger.

Of note, although it’s ringing in slightly lower than Q2 so far: seven megaround deals of over $100 million were recorded in Q3 — the most of any quarter this year. The Venture Monitor lists the top deals for the region as follows:

• MPower Financing, the DC-based education finance firm, raised $153 million.
• AI-based defense tech company Rebellion Defense raised a whopping $150 million in a Series B round. Investors listed on the DC-headquartered company’s site include representatives from Innovation Endeavors, Venrock and Kleiner Perkins.
• Rockville, Maryland biopharma firm Cellular Biomedicine Group raised $120 million in an early-stage Series A.
• Sirnaomics, a Gaithersburg, Maryland pharmaceutical company, raised $105 million in a Series E.
• DC edtech firm Class Technologies completed a $105 million Series B raise in July, valuing the company at $805 million.
• Interos raised $100 million in a Series C, reaching unicorn status.
• Renewable energy technology company Arcadia, based in DC, closed a $100 million Series D.
• Atlas Platform, a fintech firm in Reston, Virginia, raised $65 million.
• Innovative Cellular Therapies, a Rockville therapeutic firm, completed a $40 million Series C round.
• Chinatown-based fintech and supply chain company Sayari Labs raised a $39 million Series C.

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