Full of innovation workshops, co-working spaces and students, Boston has a lot of entrepreneurial characteristics rooted in its DNA.
However, when the coronavirus invaded the country, the startup scene in the area was put to the test like other business hubs. Could Boston startups still thrive without the city's solid ecosystems of persona?
Last month, we answered this question extensively : Boston area startups raised $ 3.7 billion in the second quarter, second to CB insights , a figure we called "record venture capital investment over the period".
But while high-level quarterly data are directionally useful, they can overlook illustrative dips and peaks. In 2020, things changed quickly.
So, for this month's Boston-centric column, we looked at the city's venture capital data on a monthly basis to answer the question "H What impact has the pandemic had on negotiations in the city? "
New Pitchbook data show that Boston-area startups saw a decline in venture capital after March and April, the first two months of the pandemic here in the United States. However, May and the following months more than made up for the decline. Indeed, Boston-area startups raised more private capital during summer 2020 than they did in summer 2019, suggesting that the pandemic and its resulting technological and economic changes have not hurt global startups overall. 'area, but have instead provided a distinct advantage.
In Boston's turbulent venture capital summer
Let's start with a look at the data in the form of a graph. We asked Pitchbook to take a look at Boston business results on a monthly basis since 2019.
Looking at the private equity data for Boston-based companies, we see that December was a very strong month compared to the rest of Q4 2019, but that was also easily surpassed by January. February and March were calmer, bringing us into the era of the pandemic. But surprisingly, April wasn't a complete disaster with over $ 1 billion in funds invested. May saw a marked improvement in dollar terms and June was the best of all months of the year so far.