Monday, July 21, 2008
Venture Capital Investments Flat In Q2, SoCal Still Number Two
PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association released its quarterly venture capital survey over the weekend, showing that investments in the Southern California area were essentially flat quarter-to-quarter. According to the MoneyTree Report from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) based on data provided by Thomson Reuters, there was $950M in deals for the second quarter in the Los Angeles, Orange County, and San Diego areas, down slightly from Q1, when $988.8M was invested in the region. There were 102 venture deals in the region for the quarter, exactly the same tracked last quarter by the report. Nationally, venture deals totaled $7.4 billion in 990 deals in the second quarter, compared with $7.5M in 997 deals in Q1.
In Southern California, San Diego again led the region in terms of activity, with nearly $365.7M in 38 deals; Los Angeles had $359.6M in 47 deals; and Orange County $234.7M in 17 investments. Orange County actually saw an increase in deal totals, up from $168.4M in funding in Q1, and the biggest total funding quarter since Q2 of 2005.
On an industry-by-industry basis, Southern California saw the biggest investments in the Industrial/Energy area, where $163.3M was invested. The biggest deal in that sector was Sapphire Energy in San Diego, which raised $50M in the quarter. Energy was followed by strength in the Medical Devices and Equipment area, which had $162.6M in investments. The third biggest area of investment was in the telecommunications area--including wireless--which saw $96.5M in investments.
The biggest deal in the quarter in Southern California was for Spot Runner, which raised $51.0M in the quarter. According to the report, the most active venture firms in the quarter were Rustic Canyon Partners and Palomar Ventures, both with seven deals each, followed by Enterprise Partners and Mission Venturse with five deals each.
According to numbers provided in the report, Southern California continued to rank number two in the nation in terms of deal volume, behind Silicon Valley with $2.95B in 306 deals, and ahead in terms of dollars of New England, which saw $822.9M in 119 deals.