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Miami metro’s Q3 VC: Investment is up, deal count is down, Pitchbook report finds. Here are top deals, trends and more.

Nancy Dahlberg
Nancy Dahlberg
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By Nancy Dahlberg

Considering we are still in a VC Winter, South Florida venture capital in Q3 made a fairly strong showing, even as nationally the market has floundered, according to the data behind the Q3 Pitchbook-NVCA Venture Monitor report released today. But a troubling finding in Q3 in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale metro area is that deal count has slowed up, according to Pitchbook’s underlying data.

Buckle up as we explore the trends in South Florida, Florida and nationally.

The South Florida picture

For Q3 2024, Pitchbook reported that the Miami-Fort Lauderdale metro area pulled in $628.8 million. That was up significantly from a revised $395.9 million in Q2 2023 and nearly matching Q1’s $639.2 million, according to Pitchbook’s data.

But deal count has slowed significantly. For the Miami metro area, Q3 deal count – at just 69 deals for South Florida startups –  was down from the revised 81 deals counted by Pitchbook for Q2. The count was also down from the revised 110 deals Pitchbook counted for Q1, and the 80 deals in Q3 2023. Indeed, as it stands now, the deal count is the lowest since Q4 of 2020, according to Pitchbook data.

In 2022, we began to see a trend of greatly higher deal counts, a trend has continued until recently. Is Q3 2024 an outlier? We will have to wait and see.

Top deals 

Some South Florida startups bucked the trends, showing strength amid the down market. According to Pitchbook’s data, here were the top 10 deals by companies headquartered in the Miami metro area in Q3 (At this time, I cannot confirm all of these companies are based in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale metro area):

  • Crisp: $101.3 million
  • DoorLoop: $51.6 million
  • Agrion Agrisolutions: $50 million.
  • Bluebird Kids Health: $50 million
  • NovoPayment: $20 million

Not included by Pitchbook, but Refresh Miami also reported on Intelepeer’s debt/equity raise of $140 million in Q3.

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. The Miami metro area is on track for results at least close to 2023 and perhaps they exceed last year’s total.

Hang in there, I am going to throw a lot more numbers at you now.

In the first three quarters of 2024, according to Pitchbook data, South Florida startups have raised nearly $1.7 million across 260 deals. By my reporting for the 2023 eMerge Insights report, 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. In my upcoming full year report, I analyze multiple sources of funding data, including Pitchbook’s.  

 In my recently released mid-year 2024 report for eMerge Americas, where I analyzed the data of Pitchbook, Crunchbase, The Miami Tech Dashboard powered by Dealroom, and Refresh Miami research, I found that South Florida companies attracted $1.37 billion across 199 deals in quarters 1 and 2, ranking 10th among US metros for deal value and 6th in the nation for deal count. Download the full Emerge Insights report here.

Pitchbook’s revised counts for the first half found that just over $1 million was invested across 191 deals. With the newest data from Pitchbook combined with my research, it appears that our running total through three quarters stands at at least $2 billion.  Stay tuned for my full-year eMerge Insights report early next year.

There were seven exits for South Florida companies recorded for Q3, according to Pitchbook, but no deal value was disclosed. Refresh Miami reported on Getaway’s acquisition in Q3, but terms of the transaction were also not disclosed.

Now 10 days into Q4, there have been no fundings covered by Refresh Miami yet. Who will be the first? Refresh Miami has covered two exits though: Blankfactor and Sustainabase.

Fund-raising has also slowed in Q3, with $692 million raised by funds about 15 deals, down sharply from $14 billion over 42 deals in Q1, according to Pitchbook data. But one of Florida’s most active investors sees a bigger trend at work.

“Despite this slowdown, the current deal landscape remains much healthier and more vibrant than it was before the pandemic, reflecting a sustained level of activity and interest in the market,” commented Funders Partner Saxon Baum in the recent eMerge Insights report. “Venture capital is still navigating challenging conditions, but experienced hands are finding a way forward.”

The Florida picture

Statewide, according to data underlying Pitchbook’s new report, Florida companies drew just over $1 billion across  121 deals in Q3 2024. By dollar value, that was up from a revised $788.4 million across 155 deals in Q2 2024 and Q1’s $913.6 million. It’s also up from $687.5 million a year ago.

In Q3, South Florida companies accounted for 63% of the state’s total dollars and 57% of the deal count.

Top deals around the state outside South Florida in Q3 were led by Beacon Therapeutics, a Gainesville company that raised $170 million, Tampa-based Rewst, with a $45 million raise, and Omega Power of Port St. Lucie, which raised $24 million.

As for other Florida metro areas, Gainesville drew $170.3 million (because of that top deal); the Tampa Bay area attracted $68.5 million; Orlando drew $47.8 million;  and the Space Coast lured $7.7 million.

In the first three quarters of 2024, Florida companies have raised just over $2.7 billion in venture capital across 438 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.

There were 12 exits recorded for the state. The top exit was USA Rare Earth of Tampa, a reverse merger valued at $870 million.

The national picture

Nationally, it’s been a rocky ride. “Venture deal counts seem to have bottomed, but a meaningful market rebound has yet to occur, ” the report said. In Q3, companies attracted about $35 billion in VC dollars. That was down from a revised $55.5 billion in Q2 (although a quarter of Q2 was invested in just two stocks: Coreweave and XAI) and was up slightly from $35 billion in Q3 2023. As usual, the big four: SF, New York, LA, and Boston, accounted for the lion’s share: 69.5% of the deals and just over 50% of the deal count.

With the three-quarter total running at $131.8 billion, at least beating last year’s total of $161.1 billion seems in reach and the report authors agree: “This year’s deal value is on track to reach $175 billion, surpassing 2020 but still a long way from zero-interest-rate-policy (ZIRP) era highs,” the report said, adding that investors “have stepped up their standards, opting for quality over quantity.”

Chart by Venture Monitor

According to PitchBook’s lead VC analysts Kyle Stanford  and Nalin Patel, deal count has shown its first QoQ decline in a year, with an estimated 3,777 deals completed during the quarter, and fell back back to pre-2021 levels. The median valuations for these stages is high, but there has been upward pressure on the figure due to previous high multiple valuations for companies now finally coming back to raise again.

Q3 deal value was the year’s lowest due to few outsized rounds being raised. Median deal sizes have also seen an uptick from 2023, but they remain far below the median from 2021. Stronger companies raising capital are receiving larger deals to help weather the market slowdown, they said in Pitchbook’s First Look commentary for Q3.

Nationally, exits are struggling too. Only 10 US companies went public, and $11.2 billion in total exit value was created during the quarter. The large number of companies that remain stuck in the private market are weighing on distributions back to LPs, which causes further challenges within VC, the analysts said.

The Fed rate cut in September is a step in the right direction for balancing costs of borrowing and relieving pressure on public markets that could help begin the registration process for companies moving forward, ultimately calming investors hoping for a return of more market certainty. M&A remains slow, due to both regulatory pressures and market conditions, the analysts said.

Looking ahead, 2024 is also on pace for the second slow year for fund-raising. $64.0 billion has been raised across US VC funds as the VC Winter continues to chill activity, due to the low commitments connected to the low distributions and poor returns that the strategy has provided over the past few years, the analysts said. LPs have committed a large proportion of the capital to established managers and large funds, which cuts down opportunities for startups.

“The venture markets continue to face significant headwinds in a market defined by higher costs of capital, allocation adjustments by LPs with other promising exposure sleeves and an inability to drive meaningful distributions. Limited exit activity reflects years of excess, where round prices may not have accounted for a changing economic and capital market dynamic and increased regulatory pressure on M&A reduces liquidity options for founders and investors alike. Today, we observe just 45% of unique GPs deploying capital in venture relative to 2021, with the bulk of limited fundraising capital flowing to established managers,” said Nizar Tarhuni, Pitchbook’s Executive Vice President of Research & Market Intelligence.

“While we see some promising signals with lower rates and platform shifts related to AI, we expect the overall VC landscape to remain uncertain and strained for the time being,” Tarhuni added.

Download the Venture Monitor here.

South Florida would fall to land in 8th place for both deal value and count according to the chart above. Note: Figures in this chart have been rounded and are for the CSA rather than the MSA. Charts by Venture Monitor

Note: I inadvertently linked to the Q2 report. My apologies – links have now been fixed.

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