Magic Leap leads state investments

Firm was 4th in nation in venture capital

Magic Leap led venture capital investments in Florida and was fourth in the nation for largest investments in the first quarter, according to a MoneyTree Report released Wednesday.

Only ride-sharing company Uber, restaurant delivery service DoorDash and drug developer Moderna Therapeutics had larger investments in the quarter.

Magic Leap’s latest financing, $461 million from Saudi Arabia’s investment arm, was announced in March. The Saudi investment brought Magic Leap’s total to $2 billion; previous funding rounds included Google and Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.

Plantation-based Magic Leap — a technology company that employs 1,400 people, including hundreds in South Florida — is preparing this year to launch its first product, a headset called Magic Leap One.

For the United States and for Florida, the first quarter saw bigger venture capital investments but fewer deals, according to the quarterly report, produced by PricewaterhouseCoopers and CB Insights.

With greater access to big venture capital dollars, today’s innovative startups and expanding companies don’t need to take their company to the public market for financing, said Tom Ciccolella, U.S. venture capital leader for PricewaterhouseCoopers. By staying private, “they have more control over the company,” he said.

“Look at the deal count. It’s steadily decreasing over time … companies can stay private longer and take on more funding. Magic Leap is a prime example of that,” Ciccolella said.

Statewide, the secondlargest venture capital investment during the first quarter was $10 million in F1 Oncology, which operates in West Palm Beach. The equity investment was from Shanghai Sinobioway Sunterra Biotechnology and its hospital collaborators for development of two products for treating kidney cancer.

The third-largest raise was $7.16 million in Hallandale Beach-based Tienda Pago, which allows product distributors to collect payment by mobile phone from small retailers in Latin America.

Other regional companies in Florida’s top 10 were: West Palm Beach-based SleepMed, which has developed a cloud-based diagnostic home test for sleep apnea, and raised $3.32 million in the quarter; and Miami-based Neighborhood Fuel, a fuel delivery service to homes and businesses, which raised $2 million.

In the first quarter, Florida saw 20 deals totaling $511 million. That compares with 30 deals worth $158 million in the same quarter a year ago.

Nationwide, funding to venture capital-backed companies in the United States increased 4 percent, reaching $21.1 billion invested across 1,206 deals, while deal activity declined 2 percent. Of those, there were more than 30 rounds of investments of $100 million or more during the first quarter. It’s only the second time in recent history that has happened, Ciccolella said.

He noted that artificial intelligence saw its biggest funding quarter ever, with more than $1.8 billion invested. “This is a huge quarter for them, and the deal flow is there as well,” Ciccolella said.

California companies top the quarter’s funding, including Uber, with $1.25 billion from Japan-based SoftBank Group Corp. and other investors.

Second on the national list is $535 million raised by San Francisco-based DoorDash, and third is $500 million raised by Massachusetts-based Moderna Therapeutics.

For information, see MoneyTree Report’s report online at pwcmoneytree.com.

Magic Leap’s latest financing, $461 million from Saudi Arabia’s investment arm, was announced in March. The Saudi investment brought Magic Leap’s total to $2 billion.