Whether or not Lincoln set another record last year for venture capital raised by startup firms depends on how you classify the largest investment.
Monolith, the company that is in the process of expanding its carbon black plant near Hallam and also is planning to build an anhydrous ammonia plant, received a $300 million investment last summer from a host of big-name investors, including TPG, BlackRock and NextEra Energy Resources.
That's not only the biggest investment a Lincoln-based company has ever received, but it likely also would be the largest equity investment in any company in Nebraska. And it follows a $120 million investment in Monolith in 2021.
Ben Williamson, principal and general counsel with Invest Nebraska, said he's not "100% sure" the investment is technically venture capital, but he noted that PitchBook, a company that provides research and data about venture capital and other private investments, refers to the investment as a "Series D" investment. Companies typically seek Series D funding when they need more money after several earlier rounds of investments but don't want to make a public stock offering.
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Monolith aside, 2022 was not nearly as lucrative for Lincoln startups, although it could be awhile before any year touches 2021, which saw the Monolith investment as well as three other Lincoln companies gaining investments worth more than a combined $150 million.
Among the biggest publicly disclosed investments in 2022, Opendorse reported a $20 million infusion, which was more than the athlete marketing company had gotten in total before that.
The next-biggest investment was $8.5 million, in two different rounds, for Crescent, an app that helps companies earn more money on their invested cash.
There also were some local investments that weren't publicly announced. Among them, according to a list provided by Williamson:
* $4.86 million for Roger, a business productivity software
* $4.5 million for Synbiotic Health, which makes probiotic ingredients
* $2.1 million for Beehive Industries, which makes public asset-management software
* $2 million for Layer, an app that manages building data
* $1.6 million for Capstone Technologies, which makes robots for mail handling
Another significant investment was $1.2 million for Sentinel Fertigation, a Lincoln company that uses technology to make nitrogen fertilization more efficient.
Sentinel Fertigation also got a much smaller investment last year -- $25,000 -- from the Husker Venture Fund, an investment fund led by University of Nebraska-Lincoln students that launched in the fall of 2021. The investment in Sentinel Fertigation was its first one ever.
Lincoln-based NMotion, which had been providing $100,000 to five Nebraska-based startups each year, got a big infusion of cash -- $3.7 million -- that is allowing it to expand beyond Lincoln to a new office in Omaha. The startup incubator announced in June that the money will allow it to invest in 12 companies in 2023 and another 12 in 2024.
And Lincoln also got a fair amount of federal grant money.
The U.S. Department of Commerce selected the Heartland Robotics Cluster at Nebraska Innovation Campus as one of 21 projects nationwide to receive grants as part of the Build Back Better Regional Challenge.
The $25 million grant will be used to boost robotics research and manufacturing at UNL, Northeast Community College and Metro Community College.
Several individual companies also received federal grants last year. ARYSE, a company that makes high-tech orthopedic braces, received a $750,000 Phase II Small Business Innovation Research contract through the U.S. Air Force's AFWERX program.
Two startups that are part of the Combine Incubator at Nebraska Innovation Campus, Birds Eye Robotics and Thyreos, received $175,000 Small Business Innovation Research grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
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