Three Maine companies raised capital from venture capitalists or angel investors during the third quarter of 2016, according to a tally by Maine Startups Insider.

As reported yesterday, Tilson Technology Management raised $3 million in a Series C investment round. Its filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission listed the date of the deal as Sept. 30, which means it came on the last day of the third quarter.

It was the only venture capital deal to close in Maine last quarter, according to the MoneyTree Report, a quarterly tally of venture capital funding compiled by PricewaterhouseCoopers based on data from Thomson Reuters.

While the third quarter only sported a single deal, the investment total compares to the previous two quarters of 2016. VCs invested $3.4 million in five Maine companies during the second quarter and $3.84 million in three companies the first quarter. (While the amount of VC investment per quarter on the national level can be useful to tease out trends, the amount of VC per quarter in a state like Maine, which has a relatively small number of deals, is notoriously irregular and quarter-to-quarter comparisons don’t necessarily offer enlightening data. For example, the third quarter’s $3 million investment represents a nearly 96 percent decrease from the $67.8 million raised during the second quarter of 2015, but a 71 percent increase from the $1.75 million raised during the third quarter of 2014.)

Angel investors close two deals in Q3

However, the MoneyTree report does not track investments from angel investors, of which there were two in Maine during the third quarter, according to Sandra Stone, who is former chair of the Maine Angels and still maintains the group’s data.

  • Acadia Harvest, an indoor-aquaculture venture in Franklin, raised $500,000 in August, including $194,719 from Maine Angels members in Portland and another $100,000 from the Bangor Angels.
  • Abogen, a biotech company in Portland, raised a $855,000 investment round on Sept. 30, including $115,000 from the Maine Angels.

Since its first investment in 2004, Maine Angels have invested more than $18 million in companies in New England.

Maine is middle of the pack in New England

Back to the MoneyTree report: Maine’s $3 million represents a tiny fraction of the nearly $1.8 billion invested by venture capitalists in New England companies during the third quarter of 2016.

Among the New England states, Maine was in the middle of the pack in terms of investment total. Massachusetts is the perennial regional powerhouse. Massachusetts-based companies raised $1.7 billion in 84 deals during the third quarter, followed by $41.5 million raised by New Hampshire companies in only three deals and $23.9 million raised by Connecticut companies in nine deals. Rhode Island companies raised $1.6 million in two deals, while a single Vermont company raised $500,000.

Nationally, there were 891 deals representing $10.6 billion in investment during the third quarter of 2016, according to the MoneyTree report. This is the 11th consecutive quarter where total VC investment was more than $10 billion, though when compared to the third quarter of 2015, the number of deals and amount invested on a national basis are down 25 percent and 36 percent, respectively.

“The decline in venture capital activity this quarter is part of the normalization process that is expected after a quarter in which record-breaking investments dominated headlines,” Tom Ciccolella, VC market lead at PricewaterhouseCoopers, said in a statement. “Despite deal count being the lowest since Q3 2010, quality deals continue to receive funding. The broader ecosystem remains healthy, bolstered by a lift in biotechnology within the top deals and overall, strong fundraising, and a continuation of the trend towards investments in non-traditional industries.”

The following chart shows the quarterly total amount of VC funding Maine companies raised (left vertical axis, yellow bars) and the total number of deals that yielded that total (right vertical axis, blue bars) between 2010 and the most recent quarter, according to the MoneyTree report. Note: This chart does not include the angel investment deals that don’t show up in the MoneyTree report.

Correction: The original version of this article mentioned that the National Venture Capital Association was involved in the MoneyTree report. The NVCA, in fact, is no longer associated with the report. I regret the error.