Portland startups, open source, and tech news, jobs, and events #pdx
The Portland Business Journal is reporting this morning on numbers from Pitchbook that show Portland metro area startups raised more than $1 billion in venture capital in 2021. The more impressive number from my perspective? That total was the result of investments in 138 deals.
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Yesterday, I shared a recent report by Rise of the Rest which illustrated the number of VC dollars from the Bay Area and New York City that were being invested elsewhere in the country. Portland did okay in the rankings. But something was gnawing at me. Like I needed some additional context. And suddenly it dawned on me this morning that that additional context might be the populations of the metropolitan areas that were highlighted — and what the per capita venture capital investments were.
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Raising capital is hard. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. It’s just difficult. And when you have to go outside of town for that capital, that makes it exponentially more challenging — and complex. But if this recent report from Rise of the Rest tells us anything, it’s that Portland startups are doing a decent job of dealing with that additional complexity. And landing early stage capital from outside of the state.
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A couple of interesting fund announcements for founders building Crypto and Blockchain solutions. One direct, and one more indirect. But both with local ties to the Oregon startup community.
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According to Crunchbase, Oregon was ranked 24th in the US in terms of Series A and Series B venture capital raised during the second and third quarters of 2021 — with a total of $119 million raised. They also noted that this marked an improvement of 88% over the same time period, last year.
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According to Portland Inno, a publication of the Portland Business Journal:
Cascade Seed Fund II has completed its first close and the team can start investing. The first fund was $6 million, after fundraising was cut short by the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. The managing directors, Julie Harrelson and Robert Pease, have completed all the new investments that can happen for Fund I.
For many founders, one of the most difficult parts of fundraising is figuring out who to pitch — and how. And while many funds provide details on their existing portfolio and their thesis, the particulars of how and why they make decisions remains rather opaque. Now, Oregon Venture Fund is making the effort to provide more transparency in that regard.
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Definitions change. And culture changes. Which means that communities have to deal with those changing dynamics. But sometimes, those changes mean that folks lose the thread. And lose track of the reasoning behind why definitions and roles exist.
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It’s one of those weeks in Seattle. Founders’ Co-op announced their new fund. And now, Pioneer Square Labs has revealed Fund II, a $100 million fund focused on early stage startups in the Pacific Northwest.
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While Auth0 is a Seattle company, they do have a distinct Portland tie. You see, the Portland Seed Fund was one of the company’s early investors. And today was a big day for everyone involved, given that it was just announced that Okta is acquiring Auth0 for $6.5 billion.
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