A frozen seafood company and a maker of high-tech metallurgical products attracted a combined $2.67 million in venture capital investment in the second quarter of this year.
The investment continues a trend of three companies raising $5.98 million in the first quarter of this year and five companies raising $230.85 million for all of 2017. The 2017 amount was the highest raised in more than a decade.
Cheating Gourmet Foods, a frozen seafood company based in Auburn, raised $2.17 million in the second quarter of this year, with Arbel Growth Partners as a key investor, according to the MoneyTree Report released today by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and CB Insights.
Junora Ltd., a Biddeford-based startup company that makes advanced metallurgical products for the vacuum coating industry, received $500,000. CEI Ventures Inc. of Brunswick was a minority investment.
Other Maine companies that received investments this year include Portland technology company MedRhythms Inc., which raised $4.7 million in July, and Hyperlite Mountain Gear, a Biddeford company that raised $1.1 million in January to expand production for its ultralight outdoors gear and hire more people.
The strong showing by Maine companies comes at a time when overall U.S. venture deal activity rose 9 percent from the first to second quarter of this year, according to PwC. The total venture funding in the United States in the second quarter of 2018 was $23 billion.
“Deal activity looks to be resurgent with $23 billion invested in venture capital-backed startups setting a new quarterly funding record for the start of this century,” Tom Ciccolella, PwC’s U.S. Venture Capital Leader, said in a prepared statement.
Follow the Bangor Daily News on Facebook for the latest Maine news.