Florida snags venture, angel dollars

71 deals in 2016 worth $1.1 billion

Florida attracted more venture capital and angel financing in 2016, but had roughly the same number of deals.

The state saw 71 deals worth $1.1 billion in venture capital and angel financing in 2016 compared with 75 deals worth $866 million a year earlier, according to the MoneyTree report released Wednesday by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP with CB Insights.

“From a value perspective, it was a pretty good year,” said Darach Chapman, leader of the Florida deals practice for PricewaterhouseCoopers in Miami.

Chapman said financing of Florida companies increased nearly 30 percent over 2015, including South Florida’s “mega deal” of $794 million raised in the first quarter by Magic Leap, a Broward County technology company backed by Google and Alibaba.

Excluding Magic Leap, Florida still saw an increase of about 17 percent, Chapman said.

“On an annual basis, the number of deals was slightly down form 2015. But over time; number of deals in Florida higher than any year since 2001,” he said.

Florida ranked 13th in venture and angel dollars invested in 2016. The state saw 1.9 percent of the total national dollar flow compared with 1.6 percent a year ago, Chapman said.

In the fourth quarter, there were 10 deals worth $98.7 million in Florida. The only South Florida company that made the top deals for the quarter was CareCloud, a cloud-based health business management platform in Miami, which raised $31.5 million, according to the MoneyTree list.

But the report doesn’t appear to include Fort Lauderdale-based JetSmarter, the private aviation mobile service that raised $105 million in December. JetSmarter said the latest round included existing investors rapper Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter and the Saudi Royal Family, as well as an Abu Dhabibased growth equity fund; private jet operator JetEdge; Londonbased venture capital firm KZ Capital, and a Qatar-based private equity fund.

Besides CareCloud, other top deals in Florida during 2016 were: $30 million raised by IT security company ReliaQuest in Tampa; $23 million by agricultural company Anuvia Plant Nutrients in Zellwood; and $21 million by restaurant group Sliderz in Miami.