Friday, January 20, 2012

Venture Totals Drop In Region

Venture capital totals in the Washington and Oregon plummeted in Q4 of 2011, according to the numbers released by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) last night, with only $136.57M being raised in the states in Q4. According to the report, Oregon saw $48.59M in 10 deals in Q4, and Washington saw nearly $88M in 24 deals. That was less than half the $312M in 49 deals raised across the states in Q3. Both Oregon and Washington had seen a healthy Q3 of 2011, with Oregon tallying $116.9M in deals and Washington with $195.38M. The report did not attempt to explain the big drop in venture investing totals in the area. Despite the quarter-to-quarter drop, there was one bright spot--for Oregon--which was the $48.6M raised in the quarter was still above the $33.7M in deals tallied in the state in Q4 of 2010. Nationally, there was $6.6 billion in 844 deals reported in Q4, a 10 percent decrease in dollars and an 11 percent decrease in deals. For the year, venture investing totals were actually up, to $28.4 billion and 3,673 deals, which was a 22 percent increase in dollars from the prior year; those totals make the year the third highest annual investment total in the past ten years.