Venture-backed companies headquartered in Nevada raised more than $18 million in five financing deals during the first three quarters of 2015, according to a Dow Jones VentureSource analysis released Thursday.
The amount falls about $4 million short of investment at this point last year and is low in comparison to other startup-heavy states, such as California, New York and Massachusetts. Companies raised more than $5 billion in each of those states in the first three quarters of 2015.
Because of confidentiality agreements, VentureSource could not release the names of all the Nevada firms that received venture capital. But a spokesperson was able to confirm the names of two companies.
One company is Las Vegas-based Invideon LLC, a cloud video surveillance service provider, which raised $4 million in June from a Russian venture firm, according to Crunchbase, a site that tracks investments.
The second company VentureSource named was Filament, a Reno startup that provides wireless infrastructure. It announced a $5 million round of venture capital in August. Filament CEO Eric Jennings said he plans to use the money to expand the company, which could include new hires and marketing.
“It’s all about growth,” he said.
Through nearly 1,000 deals in the third quarter, which ended in September, U.S. companies raised $19 billion, a small increase from the same period last year. The analysis of U.S. venture-backed companies recorded the greatest number of deals for the quarter in the Bay Area, Boston and New York.
The VentureSource data comprise investments in companies that have gone through at least one round of venture funding. In addition to compiling a regional breakdown, VentureSource also provides a state-by-state analysis that is based on the location of companies’ headquarters.
In the third quarter, Nevada posted one deal worth $5 million, which puts it on the low side for most states.
Janet Runge, the associate director of UNLV’s Center for Entrepreneurship, said that although Nevada receives less funding than many other states, she expects to see an increase in venture funding in the coming years.
“We are in the process right now of really building out the ecosystem,” she said.
Jennings said that although much investment attention often goes to areas such as San Francisco or New York, investors often are rewarded for looking outside those areas. He said that when investors were looking at his firm, which received funding from a Silicon Valley venture fund, they found several advantages with its location outside the Bay Area, including a significantly lower cost of living.
“We could actually do more with the money we were taking,” Jennings said.