Louisiana VC Hit an $8.5M Q2. Here's Who's Still Writing Checks

Is Louisiana's startup money drying up? The headline number from the second quarter of 2026 looks like it. The details tell a more complicated story.

The numbers

Louisiana startups raised $8.5 million across 10 deals in the second quarter, according to PitchBook and National Venture Capital Association data reported by Technical.ly on Aug. 4.

One deal was most of the quarter

The largest deal was $7.5 million for Project Horntail, a stealth Shreveport company majority-owned by Japan's Sumitomo. It plans to use about 88 unused acres next to a Teal Jones lumber sawmill to make mass timber and wood products. Technical.ly characterized it as closer to a redevelopment effort than traditional venture capital.

That one deal is about 88% of the quarter's total. The rest, as reported:

No exits, meaning acquisitions or public offerings, were recorded in the quarter.

Low deal counts are normal here. "We haven't had more than 15 deals close in any one quarter across the state," Kwamena Aidoo, cofounder of New Orleans firm Corridor Ventures, told Technical.ly. He said he expects "dealflow across Louisiana to continue to be diversified."

Who's still writing checks

A lot of Louisiana's early-stage money flows through one federal program. The State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI) gave Louisiana $113 million, and up to $91.5 million of it is aimed at equity investments, Technical.ly reported on Aug. 31. Instead of running one big state fund, Louisiana Economic Development acts as a limited partner, a passive investor, in local funds. It matches up to $5 million per fund, and each fund must raise private money and make its own picks.

"I'm just a catalyst. I give them the initial seed capital. They have to match it with private capital. But they make the decisions," said Josh Fleig, the state's chief innovation officer.

Here is who's active, based on Technical.ly's reporting and LED's program pages:

Gulf South Angels had made 14 deals year to date as of the Aug. 4 report, including two Louisiana companies, Advano and Trayway. Chairman Mike Eckert said those were follow-on rounds: "we had been in those companies already." He also said there is "quite a bit of capital floating around" for Louisiana investors to use.

The program has a track record to measure against. In 2024, about $2 million in state money "helped pull roughly $18 million into Louisiana startups," Technical.ly reported.

Money that isn't venture capital

Not all startup funding is equity. In September, Tulane spinout Informuta won a $1.25 million National Science Foundation grant through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, a federal program that funds research at small companies without taking ownership. Grants like this don't show up in VC totals, which is one more reason one quarter's number doesn't tell the whole story.

What the data doesn't prove

• A drop from $41.7 million to $8.5 million sounds dramatic, but with roughly 10 deals a quarter, one or two large rounds can swing the total either way.
• Reported data lags. Some Q2 deals may be added later.
• Dollar totals say nothing about how many founders found the money they needed.

We're tracking every reported Louisiana round in our funding tracker, with a downloadable CSV.

• Funding
• Startups
• New Orleans
• Shreveport
• Baton Rouge