National + Healthcare | February 3, 2023

Private Capital Gravitates to Emerging Life Sciences Markets

Private capital funding has accelerated growth in the life sciences sector over the past decade, Cushman & Wakefield’s Sandy Romero reported. Record flows to the sector helped drive up valuations in preparation for initial public offerings (IPOs), which hit a record in 2020. Although the pace of funding and IPOs slowed down in 2022, capital continued to flow, but at a more moderate level.

Some emerging markets experienced year-over-year growth in funding during 2022, including Denver ($486.6 million, up 6%), Austin ($345 million, up 80%), Minneapolis ($275 million, up 26%) and Atlanta ($86 million, up 2%).

The markets seeing the lion’s share of funding continue to be the largest U.S. life sciences hubs: the San Francisco Bay Area, with $12.6 billion (35% of total U.S. funding), Boston with $8.5 billion (24% funding) and San Diego with $2.5 billion (7% funding).

Among the major life sciences hub markets, venture capital funding grew Y-O-Y in the Bay Area ($12.6 billion, up 32%) and Raleigh-Durham ($628 million, up 36%).

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Inside The Story

Cushman & Wakefield's Romero

About Paul Bubny

Paul Bubny serves as Senior Content Director for Connect Commercial Real Estate, a role to which he brings 13-plus years’ experience covering the commercial real estate industry and 30-plus years in business-to-business journalism. In this capacity, he oversees daily operations while also reporting on both local/regional markets and national trends, covering individual transactions across all property types, as well as delving into broader subject matter. He produces 15-20 daily news stories per day and works with the Connect team and clients to develop longer-form content, ranging from Q&As to thought-leadership pieces. Prior to joining Connect, Paul was Managing Editor for both Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com at American Lawyer Media, where he oversaw operations at both publications while also producing daily news and feature-length articles. His tenure in B2B publishing stretches back into the print era, and he has served as Editor in Chief on four national trade publications. Since 1999, Paul has volunteered as the newsletter editor of passenger rail advocacy groups (one national, one local).