Photo via Shutterstock.
Photo via Shutterstock.

Venture capital investing tumbled dramatically in Washington state during the second quarter as $175.8 million was invested across 24 deals, the smallest dollar amount invested in the state since the first quarter of 2014, according to the MoneyTree Report from PriceWaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association.

That’s down from $186 million invested in Washington state in the previous quarter, and $454 million invested in the second quarter of 2015.

A separate report being released today by Dow Jones VentureSource showed a similar slow down in Washington state, indicating that $206 million was invested across 21 deals. That compared to $482 million invested in 39 deals for the same period last year.

Those numbers seem to indicate one thing in Washington state: Things are slowing down in the state’s venture market.

Matt Oppenheimer of Remitly at the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Awards
Matt Oppenheimer of Remitly at the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Awards.

That’s not a good thing for entrepreneurs who are looking to find capital to grow their businesses, and it may portend trouble ahead since the public markets remain relatively closed for initial public offerings.

After all, the tech community needs one thing to keep the fuel going: Big exits.

Even with those warning signs, some companies were able to secure capital in the state during the second quarter, including Remitly ($38.5 million); Qumulo ($30 million); Outreach ($17.5 million); Wiserg ($16.4 million); and BitTitan ($15 million).

On a national level, $15.3 billion was invested across 961 deals. That compared to the first quarter when $12.7 billion was invested in 1,011 deals, and the second quarter of 2015 when $17.4 billion was invested across 1,231 deals, according to the MoneyTree report.

deals-Screen Shot 2016-07-14 at 9.13.03 PM“The venture capital ecosystem has proven to be both resilient and nimble,” said Tom Ciccolella, US Venture Capital Market Leader at PwC, in a press release. “We continue to see things we have never seen before, including megadeals, investments of $100 million or more, encompassing an
unprecedented thirty-nine percent of deal value for the second quarter and the largest venture capital deal of all time.”

In other words, the rich keep getting richer in the startup ranks, not necessarily the best thing for entrepreneurship.

This marked the ninth straight quarter where 10 or more companies raised massive rounds of $100 million or more. In fact, the top 10 deals  represented a whopping 40 percent of all venture capital in the U.S. Even more crazy, the top two deals accounted for 31 percent of all money invested in the country.

That’s right: Just two deals: Uber ($3.5 billion) and Snapchat (1.27 billion)

“The second quarter data confirms what we’ve heard anecdotally from our members, which is that venture investors remain active through a string of strong fundraising periods but are becoming more selective in where they deploy capital,” said said Bobby Franklin, president and CEO of NVCA.

Here’s a look at the national numbers from Dow Jones Venture Source:

ventureone-Screen Shot 2016-07-14 at 8.55.57 PM

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