Southeast Exit Data Report 2014–2021

Build In SE is launching the first-ever exit database for the Southeast. We hope it serves as a resource for the region as it continues to grow and to show the world the remarkable startup success that the Southeast has seen. This database is meant to be an ever-expanding work in progress, so if we missed an exit or two, please let us know. We can’t wait to add them to this report!

The Southeast is home to an emerging startup ecosystem. The region saw $10 billion invested in it during 2020, making it third to only the Pacific Coast and the Northeast in terms of dollars invested. Its 78 million residents make up one of the most diverse and accomplished talent pools in the country, and the region has roughly the same economic output as the U.K.

This solid foundation has lured both entrepreneurs and the institutions that support them — VC firms, angel groups, accelerators, and more— to the region. These forces have created a community that can support any company from idea to IPO. While many of these companies are still flourishing, a significant number of them have exited (went public, sold to another company, or sold into private equity).

These exits are important because they enhance the wealth, visibility, and reputation of the tech ecosystem in the Southeast. They go a long way to power the development of the Southeast’s high-tech sector as well as the economic development of the region as a whole.

The Southeast has seen at least 156 exits since 2014. The entire database can be found here. Let’s break it down!

Southeast Venture Funding on the Rise

In the past year, the Southeast experienced nearly 30% growth in new angel network and venture firm creation. According to the 2021 Southeast Capital Landscape, there are more than 280 firms in Southeast investing across all stages and all sectors (now 309 firms since the Southeast Capital Landscape was published). The year-over-year growth of available venture capital to Southeast-based startups indicates the frequency and size of exits over the next 5–10 years are also likely to grow.

Top Line Takeaways

• There were at least 156 exits in the Southeast from 2014–2021. Of the 156 exits, 79 had disclosed exit values.
• These 79 exits amounted to at least $70,415,430,000 going into the Southeast ecosystem.
• Based on disclosed fundraising numbers, these startups raised a total of $11,497,750,000 before exiting.
• The number of exits remained steady from 2014–2019, where the Southeast saw somewhere between 5–10 exits per year. In 2020 and in the first half of 2021, the Southeast saw at least 73 and 39 exits, respectively.
• By our count, the Southeast saw at least 16 unicorn exits (exits over $1 billion) over this time period. This is an average of more than 2 per year.

Defining the Southeast

We define the Southeast as the 10-state region encompassing everything from Mississippi to Miami up to Virginia and out to Kentucky. This geographic region is home to more than 78 million people, some of the largest cities in the U.S., and many college towns and smaller metros that have the potential to spur tremendous startup growth.

The States with the Most Activity

The top 5 Southeast states for exits were as follows:

1. Florida

• population 21.5 million
• 44 exits
• disclosed amount exited — $13,193,180,000

2. Georgia

• population 10.7 million
• 35 exits
• disclosed amount exited — $25,225,000,000

3. North Carolina

• population 10.4 million
• 34 exits
• disclosed amount exited — $10,760,100,000

4. Virginia

• population 8.5 million
• 22 exits
• disclosed amount exited — $6,033,800,000

5. Kentucky

• population 4.5 million
• 7 total exits exits
• disclosed amount exited — $2,445,100,000

The Cities with the Most Activity

Map of Southeast exits by city

The top 5 Southeast cities for exits were as follows:

1. Atlanta

• city population 506,811
• metro area population 6,018,744 (Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell)
• 25 exits
• disclosed amount exited — $22,776,000,000

2. Tampa

• city population 399,700
• metro area population 3,194,831 (Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater)
• 12 exits
• disclosed amount exited — $2,242,500,000

3. Durham

• city population 278,993
• metro area population 2,079,687 (Raleigh-Durham-Cary)
• 10 exits
• disclosed amount exited — $5,773,700,000

4. Miami

• city population 467,963
• metro area population 6,166,488 (Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach)
• 9 exits
• disclosed amount exited — $4,707,150,000

5. Arlington

• city population 236,842
• metro area population 6,280,697 (Washington-Arlington-Alexandria)
• 6 exits
• disclosed amount exited — $2,504,800,000

Geographic Growth in Exits from 2014–2019

From 2014-2019, the number of exits in the five most active states was consistent. They saw somewhere between 1–4 exits per year. In 2020 and in the first half of 2021, the top five states saw an explosion in the number of exits. All five saw at least double their previous record number of exits in 2020, and at least matched their previous high in the first half of 2021.

A similar trend held with the five most active cities. From 2014-2019 each of the top five cities saw somewhere between 1–3 exits each year with an explosion of exits in 2020 and 2021. In 2020, the city of Atlanta saw 11 exits, which is a 73% jump from their previous high of 3 exits in 2014. The turn of the decade also meant that the number of exits jumped significantly in Arlington, Miami, Tampa, and Durham.

In geographic areas that saw fewer exits, the same trend held. All but one of Tennessee’s exits (Smile Direct Club in 2019) came in 2020 and 2021. All but one of Kentucky’s exits (ZirMed in 2017) came in those same years. Alabama’s exits were dispersed evenly over the seven-year time window, with them occurring in 2015, 2017, 2020, and 2021. The sole exits in Mississippi (Pinnacle Medical Solutions) and West Virginia (Troy) both came in 2020.

Breakdown By Company

Well-known consumer-facing brands such as Chewy, Smile Direct Club, and Shipt all originated in the Southeast. Other Southeast-based companies such as Askbio, nCino, and ConnectWise provide essential services for the healthcare, financial services, and technology industries. The successes that these Southeast startups have seen have made them top-tier targets for acquirers all over the world.

Largest Exit in Each State

Alabama: Therapy Brands is a Birmingham-based mental and behavioral health platform that was acquired by KKR investments in 2021 for $1.2 billion.

Florida: Chewy is a Fort Lauderdale-based eCommerce company for pet-related products. The company went public in 2019 with a $14.3 billion valuation. This IPO came after Chewy was acquired by Petsmart in 2017 for $3.3 billion.

Georgia: Mailchimp is an Atlanta-based is the world’s leading marketing automation platform for small and medium businesses. The company was acquired by Intuit for $12 billion in 2021.

Kentucky: AppHarvest is a Morehead-based agtech company that went public via a SPAC for $1 billion in 2021.

Mississippi: Pinnacle Medical Solutions is a Southaven-based company that provides home delivery of medical supplies to diabetes patients. The company was sold to AdaptHealth in 2020 for $81.5 million.

North Carolina: Askbio is a Durham-based biotech company that specializes in gene therapy for Pompe disease and other ailments. The company was sold to Bayer for $4 billion in 2020.

Tennessee: Smile Direct Club is a Nashville-based teledentistry company that creates invisible at-home dental aligners. The company went public via an IPO in 2019 and had an $8.9 billion valuation at the time. The company is worth about $3 billion today.

Virginia: Cvent is a McLean-based event and marketing management platform. The company went public for $1.65 billion via a SPAC merger in 2021.

Other Notable Exits

Arlington: Evolent Health is a population health support management services organization based in Arlington, Virginia. The company went public in 2015 for $973 million.

Birmingham: Shipt is a Birmingham-based grocery and alcohol delivery service. It was acquired by Target in 2017 for $550 million.

Wilmington: nCino is a cloud-based bank operating system for the financial services industry based in Wilmington, North Carolina. The company went public in 2020 as a unicorn after raising $213.2 million on the private market.

Huntsville: GATR Technologies is a Huntsville, Alabama-based company that develops marketable, deployable satellite communication antennas. The company was acquired by Cubic for $233 million in 2015.

Louisville: ZirMed is a Louisville-based revenue cycle-management tool for healthcare businesses. The company was acquired by Navicure, a healthcare technology company backed by Bain Capital, for $750 million in 2017.

Nashville: Contessa Health is a Nashville-based healthcare company that specializes in inpatient hospital care. The company was sold to Amedisys for $250 million in 2021.

Orlando: Pentaho is an Orlando-based big data integration and analytics platform. The company was acquired by Hitachi Data Systems in 2015 for $600 million.

Tampa: ConnectWise is a Tampa-based software company that provides business management tools for technology businesses. The company was acquired by Thoma Bravo for $1.5 billion in 2021.

Breakdown By Timeline

During the seven-year time window, the Southeast went from being a young ecosystem that could produce and support 5–10 exits per year to a maturing, emergent ecosystem that can produce and support a snowballing number of exits annually.

The number of exits remained steady from 2014–2019 where the ecosystem saw somewhere between 5–10 exits per year. In 2020 the Southeast saw 73 exits. This represents over a 12x year-over-year jump. The 39 exits in the first half of 2021 show that the ecosystem is keeping pace with, if not primed to exceed, the record-setting number of exits seen in 2020.

Breakdown By Industry

The Southeast’s strong economy is powered by sectors as diverse as finance, the arts, and biotech, and its startup ecosystem is taking the same form. While the ecosystem’s initial exits were more focused on health tech and general technology, tech exits that touched all industries began to emerge as the ecosystem matured.

Number of Exits in Each Industry:

By our tally, the 156 exited companies came from 34 different industries. The top 5 industries were as follows.

1. Technology — 47 exits
2. Health — 34 exits
3. Media/Digital Media — 13 exits
4. Financial Services/Fintech — 13 exits
5. B2B — 5 exits

Count by Year

Of the 38 exits in the top five industries in 2014–2019, 32 were in health and technology. The media/digital media, financial services/fintech, and B2B exits that took place during those five years represent only 22% of the total number of exits in those industries.

2020 and the first half of 2021 saw 78% of the total media/digital media, financial services/fintech, and B2B exits. This time period also saw 55% of the Southeast’s health exits and 63% of the Southeast’s technology exits.

Who’s Buying

Southeast exits have attracted the likes of Target, Pfizer, and Cisco Systems as acquirers. They have also been acquired by top investment firms such as BlackRock, Bain Capital, and Moody’s.

Of the 156 exits, 26 went public via an IPO or a SPAC, and 130 were acquired by another company or a private investment firm. Of the acquisitions, the vast majority were sold to other companies around the country and around the world rather than sold into private equity.

Breakdown in Valuation and Terms of the Deal

The average size of the 79 disclosed exits in the Southeast was $891,334,557. The average amount of capital raised before exiting was $105,870,313. The average size of a unicorn exit was $3,088,750,000. Georgia had the most unicorns with seven, followed by Florida with four, North Carolina with two, and Alabama, Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee with one each.

Exit Size by City and State

The state with the highest annual exit value was Tennessee (the Smile Direct Club IPO was one of the largest exits in the entire dataset), followed by Georgia, North Carolina, Florida, Kentucky, Virginia, and Alabama. The state with the highest median exit was Kentucky, followed by Georgia, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, and Florida.

The city with the highest average annual exit value was Atlanta at $2,292,666,667, followed by Miami, Durham, Arlington, and Tampa. The city with the highest median exit was Durham, followed by Atlanta, Arlington, Miami, and Tampa.

Year-Over-Year Breakdown

Over the seven-year window, the average annual exit size for the 79 disclosed exits was $1,087,739,938, with a median annual exit of $750,992,857. The average annual value for the 79 disclosed exits ranged from $3,317,666,667 to $90,158,333. The year with the most exits, 2020 (73 exits), had the smallest average annual exit size due to an increase in the number of exits under $100 million. 2019 (6 exits), the year with the fewest exits, had the highest average annual exit size, due to a smaller number of larger-dollar exits.

Year-Over-Year Amount Raised Before Exiting

The average annual amount of capital raised before exiting in the region was $130,781,821, and the median annual value was $64,250,000.

2020, the year with the most exits, saw the least amount of capital raised before exiting, and 2014, a year with only six exits, saw the highest amount of capital raised before exiting. This is due to 2020 seeing a higher number of smaller-dollar exits (<$100 million) and 2014 having a consistent number of mid-to-high range exits. Additionally, the increase in both the number of exits and the disclosure of the smaller exit sizes can indicate maturity in a startup ecosystem.

Relationship Between Dollars Raised Before Exiting and Exit Value

Southeast unicorns raised an average of $215,198,500 before exiting. The dollars raised before exiting for these companies range from $585,000 to $556,300,000. Exits in the range of $100 million to $500 million raised an average of $152,861,538 before exiting and again saw a range of $300 million between the highest and the lowest exits. Exits in the range of $50 million to $100 million raised an average of $3,541,286 before exiting and saw a range of $6,677,000 between the highest and the lowest exits.

The relationship between dollars raised and exit size shows that Southeast startups are remarkably capital efficient. High-growth, high-value companies in the Southeast have been able to achieve incredible success with significantly less institutional capital than similar companies in other regions. This makes the Southeast an attractive market for investors since it has a track record of yielding high returns.

Looking to the Future

While these exited companies are pioneers who have laid a solid foundation for the Southeast, they don’t tell the entire story of the ecosystem. There are multiple non-exited unicorns in the Southeast that will propel both startup and economic growth in the region for years to come. Here are the top non-exited companies in the Southeast.

Calendly: Calendly is an Atlanta-based scheduling tool that allows its users to take back control of their schedule so they can accomplish more. The company has raised $350.6 million to date and has a $3 billion valuation.

Pipe: Pipe is a Miami-based fintech company for trading and recurring revenue streams. The company has raised $316 million to date and has a $2 billion valuation.

Interos: Interos is an Arlington-based AI platform that delivers supply-chain and risk-management solutions to the public and private sectors. The company has raised $128.4 million to date and has a valuation over $1 billion.

Full Story: FullStory is an Atlanta-based is a customer experience data app that captures customer experience data in a single platform. The company has raised $172.2 million to date and has a valuation of $1.8 billion.

Pendo: Pendo is a Raleigh-based software product engagement and user feedback platform. The company has raised $359.5 million to date and has a $2.6 billion valuation.

SalesLoft: SalesLoft is an Atlanta-based sales engagement and experience platform. The company has raised $245.7 million to date and has a $1.1 billion valuation.

Greenlight: Greenlight is an Atlanta-based company that provides a debit card that is designed for kids and can help parents monitor their kid’s financial decisions. The company has raised $556.5 million and has a $2.3 billion valuation.

OneTrust: OneTrust is an Atlanta-based company that helps companies manage privacy, security, and governance requirements. The company has raised $920 million to date and has a $5.3 billion valuation.

Epic Games: Epic Games is a North Carolina-based company that created Fortnite and some of the most popular video games in the world. The company has raised $5.1 billion to date and has a valuation of $28.7 billion.

Magic Leap: Magic Leap is a Florida-based startup that creates proprietary wearable technology that enables users to interact with digital devices in a completely visually cinematic way. The startup has raised $3 billion to date and has a $6.4 billion valuation.

Stord: Stord is an Atlanta-based company that creates the first-ever end-to-end cloud supply chain. The startup has raised $205 million to date and has a $1.1 billion valuation.

Built Technologies: Built Technologies is a Nashville-based startup that creates a cloud-based construction finance platform. The startup has raised $289.1 million to date and has a $1.5 billion valuation.

SAS: SAS is a Cary, North Carolina-based company that is the largest independent software vendor in the business intelligence market. This summer, the company was in talks to be acquired by Broadcom for a reported $15-$20 billion, but the acquisition did not occur.

These companies represent the future of the Southeast, and many more massive exits are sure to follow. In 2020 more than $10 billion was invested in the region, making it third in the country to the Pacific Coast and the Northeast in terms of venture dollars invested. The past year has also seen record interest in Southeast metros such as Atlanta, Tennessee, and Miami. Increasingly, founders are choosing to #BuildInSE.

Call to Action

We want to showcase all the remarkable and diverse exits in our ecosystem. If we missed any Southeast exits, please let us know! We can’t wait to add them to our database. Shoot me an email at emily.elia@buildinse.com.

Build In SE’s mission is to increase the number of startup success stories in the Southeast by leveraging a cross-regional, collaborative network. We’re building regional intelligence through our team of local Ecosystem Curators, Alliance partners, and investor communities, all in support of founders as they launch and scale their startups. Build In SE is a certified Benefit Corporation headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee.

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