Fourteen Florida companies tapped $856 million in funding during the first quarter of 2016, according to new data out this morning, with four Tampa Bay start-ups winning $27.4 million or just 3.2 percent of the overall funding.
Among the Tampa Bay companies, St. Petersburg software firm PowerChord won $10 million, followed by Clearwater security awareness firm KnowBe4 winning $8 million. Tampa biotech start-up CBC Biotechnologies gained $7 million in funding and Tampa Internet search software firm SiteWit received $2.4 million.
The overwhelming majority of funding — $793.5 million — in the quarter went to Dania-based Magic Leap, the secretive maker of augmented or “cinematic” reality technology. That enormous sum was big enough to make Magic Leap’s funding round one of the biggest in the country for the quarter, following ride-sharing start-up Lyft, which received $1 billion. Tech giants Google and Qualcomm already are investors in Magic Leap and, in the latest round, Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba joined the funding frenzy.
