Top 10 Early-Stage Venture Capital Deals of 2014 — entrepreneur.com

It’s common for the largest deals to come from bold-faced names, as we saw with Uber, Airbnb, Dropbox and others who expanded in 2014. However, last year's most interesting developments came from some of the youngest companies. Tracking deal activity at these smaller firms can act as a window into which sectors are poised to grow and how both the funding cycle and startup path is transforming. Little-known companies are raising larger rounds earlier, thanks to buzz over tech IPOs, market optimism and hedge funds willing to give them a chance, says Adley Bowden, senior director of analysis at PitchBook, a Seattle-based data provider on the private markets. 2014 saw a whopping 157 early-stage financings besting the $25 million mark, well above any tallies in the past fifteen years, blurring the lines between funding rounds, according to PitchBook. 

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