Thursday, July 15, 2010
Venture Capital Totals Up In Q2
PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) have released their quarterly venture capital numbers for Q2, reporting that venture deals in the US in the quarter totaled $6.5 billion. According to the two, using data provided by Thomson Reuters, quarterly investment activity was up by 34 percent in terms of dollars, and up 22 percent in terms of deals, compared with Q2 of last year. Locally, PwC and the NVCA said that the Pacific Northwest region had $247.6M in investments, up from $157.24M in Q2 of last year. Quarter to quarter, numbers were slightly up from the $234.0M invested in the Northwest region in Q1.
Nationally, the strongest industries for funding were Clean Technology--which doubled in dollars invested in Q1--and Life Sciences, which jumped 52 percent in terms of dollars funded. The up quarter was welcome news in an industry which was battered by the economy last year. On a call discussing the results, Suzanne King, a venture capitalist at New Enterprise Associates, said that the firm has "never felt better" about opportunities in the market as today, explaining that it has seen many companies who are "doing well or exceeding their plan." The PwC and NVCA also noted that this was the strongest quarter since 3rd quarter of 2008 in terms of venture deals."As the exit market begins to show signs of life, venture capitalists are now able to look increasingly at new investments outside their existing portfolio," noted Mark Heesen, President of the NVCA, in a statement announcing the results.