Venture funding is flowing through New York's tech startups. In the first quarter of the year, VC-backed companies in the metro area took in $2.6 billion in investments, according to the MoneyTree deal-tracking tool from PwC and CB Insights. The city's total represented a 61% increase from the first quarter of 2017 and was just a shade below the record-high $2.7 billion raised in Q1 2016.