Venture capital funding to Las Vegas way up last year

A view of East Fremont Street looking east from 10th Street in downtown Las Vegas Oct. 22, 2014.

Even if it’s just a fraction of the amount generated by startups in Silicon Valley, Nevada’s venture capital dollars are on the rise.

In five separate deals in 2014, investment firms funded startup companies with $37.7 million in the Silver State, according to data released by the National Venture Capital Association this week.

That’s more than quadruple the $9.6 million in VC money that funded three companies in Nevada in 2013. A year earlier, in 2012, about $7 million in venture capital landed in Southern Nevada.

In comparison, nearby Phoenix generated $243 million in 28 separate deals.

Venture capital is the money invested into a project by firms without a promise of return on their cash. It often goes to companies that are either just starting out or expanding.

In total in 2014, venture capital firms invested $48.3 billion in startup companies in 160 metropolitan areas, a 7.5 percent increase from 2013.

The uptick is good news to experts.

“The diverse geography of venture investment points to the enormous impact of entrepreneurs, students, incubators, investors and others who are working to build local ecosystems where high-growth companies can thrive, create jobs and shape the future our economy,” said Bobby Franklin, president and CEO of NVCA, in a statement.

In a joint effort, Pricewaterhouse Coopers and the National Venture Capital Association put together a list of the top areas for Venture Capital based on information collected by Reuters.

The list’s top cities included San Francisco (876 deals for $15.7 billion), San Jose (417 deals for $6.8 billion) and Boston (371 deals $4.4 billion).

Here’s a look at the 2014 list of Nevada deals in full:

Wedgies, a web application that provides a social media polling service to collect and gather real-time feedback from audiences, received $700,000 from a mix of investors, including the Battle Born Venture Program, Greycroft Partners, Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners and the Vegas Tech Fund.

Moveline Group, Inc., a software developer, pulled in almost $3.2 million from ff Venture Capital, an early-stage investment firm based in New York City.

Factorli Inc., a manufacturing plant for hardware startups, wrangled $10 million from an undisclosed firm and VegasTech Fund. The company closed in August of last year, not long after receiving the startup cash.

Playstudios Inc., a video game-based marketing platform headed by former Wynn employee Andrew Pascal, landed $20 million from Jafco Ventures and an undisclosed firm.

LaunchKey Inc., an authentication platform that uses customers’ mobile devices to secure everything from websites to smart locks to mobile apps, received about $3.8 million from a hodgepodge of investors including Crosslink Capital, Inc., Metamorphic Ventures, Pantera Capital Management, Vegas Tech Fund and one undisclosed firm.

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