Philly Startup Funding Shows Eagles-Like Strength

Joanna Glasner jglasner

Last time the Philadelphia Eagles faced the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl, we thought it offered a unique opportunity to look at each city and team’s ties to the startup world.

Little did we know, however, that just two years later it’d be time for a repeat.

This time, we Philly natives will be rooting for a different outcome on the field. When the teams faced off in 2023, the Chiefs won with an infuriating (for Eagles fans) three-point lead.

For now, Philadelphians can take some comfort in knowing that, at least in the startup sphere, the City of Brotherly Love remains leagues ahead of Kansas City. In particular, the city and its environs boast a booming biotech scene that has long attracted hefty venture funding. (However, some of the actual Chiefs players are also players in the venture world.)

Philicon Valley

Biotech was by far the dominant funding area for Philly-area companies when we did our Super Bowl story in 2023. Two years later, not much has changed on that front.

A scan of the biggest Philly-area funding rounds of the past two years shows that, once again, life sciences and health reigns supreme, per Crunchbase data. The biggest standout for 2024 was Uniquity Bio, a developer of therapeutics based on advances in immunology that raised $300 million from Blackstone Life Sciences in May.

In recent months, startup funding has continued to show Eagles-like momentum, including some pretty large rounds. This includes XyloCor Therapeutics, a startup focused on gene therapy for cardiovascular disease that secured $67.5 million in a Series B early this year.

The second-largest round went to Vitara Biomedical, developer of a therapeutic platform for premature infants that raised a $50 million Series B in November. Other good-sized funding recipients include ConnectDER, a maker of adapters for solar panels and EV chargers that secured $35 million, and GemmaBio, a gene therapy startup that launched in December with $35 million in initial funding.

While the City of Philadelphia is no slouch in startup funding, a big chunk of regional investment also goes to surrounding suburbs. There’s a particularly high concentration for towns within a short drive of Valley Forge National Historical Park, giving rise to the nickname “Philicon Valley.” (Which, unsurprisingly, hasn’t really caught on.)

In both the city and ’burbs, it’s clear from funding that gene therapy is one of the top areas of expertise for the region. This has given rise to another not-that-popular moniker for the region: Cellicon Valley.

Since our last Philly Super Bowl, the University of Pennsylvania’s powerhouse reputation in this area drew international recognition as two members of its mRNA vaccine research team, Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman, Ph.D., won the 2023 Nobel Prize in medicine.

Looking for more big wins

Of course, Eagles fans are hoping that the next big win for the region will come in the form of a decisive victory over the Chiefs.

Startup funding nerds, meanwhile, are looking for a winning streak that will play out considerably longer, in the form of accelerated growth, big rounds and exits. Should the IPO market pick up again, there’s also a sizable pipeline of later-stage biotechs that can contemplate going public.