Capital investment in growing Boulder businesses has been reaching historically high levels recently. Well over $3.5 billion in capital has been invested in some of the largest business acquisition, expansion and investment transactions in the past two years. One of the Boulder Economic Summit panel sessions examined these transactions, putting a more recognizable face on the companies involved:
Over $2.75 billion has been invested in Boulder companies and expansion through acquisitions since 2014. Most notable among these were:
- Pinnacle Foods’ acquisition of Boulder Brands
- NetApp’s acquisition of SolidFire
- Hormel Foods acquisition of Justin’s nut butters
- AstraZeneca’s purchase of the former Amgen Boulder manufacturing facility
- Twitter’s acquisition of Gnip, and
- CA Technologies’ acquisition of Rally Software
Over one-half billion dollars was raised through initial public offerings in 2014 and 2015 by the Zayo Group, Rally Software and Nivalis Therapeutics.
Over $500 million in venture capital has been invested in Boulder County startups since 2014, totaling just under 30% of all venture capital raised throughout Colorado. Some of the most notable VC investments include:
2016 (through the first quarter)
Largest investment rounds:
- SomaLogic $60 million (projected)
- TapInfluence $14 million
2015
Total investment for the year = $231 million (29.5% of total Colorado VC investment)
Largest investment rounds:
- Sphero $45M
- miRagen Therapeutics $41M
- sovrn (formerly Lijit Networks) $18M
- Occipital $15M
- TeamSnap $10M
- VictorOps $10M
- Kapost $10M
2014
Total investment for the year = $225 million (28.4% of total Colorado VC investment)
Largest investments rounds:
- SolidFire $82M
- Nivalis Therapeutics (formerly N30) $30M
- MinuteKey $30m
- SendGrid $21M
- Tendril $20M
- Sphero (formerly Orbotix) $20M
- SomaLogic $17M