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12 n e w h a v e n B I Z | J u l y 2 0 2 1 | n e w h a v e n b i z . c o m F or much of the U.S. economy, 2020 was a year best forgotten. Federal Reserve Bank numbers show more than 100,000 small businesses permanently closed, with many others under duress heading into 2021. But for venture capital, 2020 was a banner year. According to figures from Pitchbook and the National Venture Capital Association (NCVA), investors poured more than $156.2 billion — or $428 million per day — into U.S.-based startups last year, an 11 percent increase from 2019. In Connecticut, startups — predomi- nantly technology or life sciences ventures located in Greater New Haven — hauled in more than $707 million in funding in 2020, a 27 percent increase year-over-year, and the most money raised in a single year in the past two decades, according to numbers from a PwC/CBInsights MoneyTree Report. Connecticut Innovations (CI), the state's quasi-venture capital arm, invested more than $43 million in nearly 100 startups in the state in fiscal year 2020 alone, a 10 percent increase from the prior year. And it's not just a short-term phenom- enon. Over the past decade, the median venture capital investment across all phases Record venture capital funding driving local startups' demand for CFO talent By Matthew Broderick Flush with Cash Per Hellsund is the CEO of New Haven-based Cybrexa Therapeutics, which recently hired a new chief financial officer. Stephen Bosso was recently hired as Cybrexa Therapeutics' CFO PHOTO | FILE PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED

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