Venture Capital up 39% This Reporting Period

This reporting period companies based in California operating in the Biotechnology industry and that have raised their Series C round of financing led the pack in the amount of venture financing raised. Also, there was two IPOs this reporting period.

(PRWEB) March 13, 2005 -- www.CapitalHunter.com was able to verify that $196 million of venture capital was invested in 26 U.S.-based companies during this weeks reporting period. The average deal size was approximately $7.54 million. The amount of venture capital invested this period decreased by 39% compared to last periods $320 million.

Geographically, 13 California companies raised $248 million in venture financings which represents 70% of the total venture capital invested this reporting period. The largest private venture financing in California this period was into Perlegen Sciences. Perlegen Sciences raised $74 million and is an Mountain View based and is a developer of therapeutics and diagnostics for enabling high-resolution genome scanning.

The biotechnology sector raised 31% of the venture capital this period. Three biotechnology companies raised $107.2 million in venture financing. The largest private venture financing in the biotechnology sector this period was into Perlegen Sciences.

Companies raising their Series C round of financing led this weeks venture capital activity. Series C financings represented 28% of the total venture capital deployed this period. The largest private venture financing in Series C stage financing this period was into Xtent. Xtent raised $25 million and is a Menlo Park, CA based medical devices company that is a developer of drug-eluting stent systems for the treatment of complex, multi-vessel, multi-lesion coronary and peripheral vascular disease.

The three largest financings this reporting period are as follows:

1. Perlegen Sciences $74 million

2. SolarFlare Communications $48 million

3. Xtent $25 million

The following fourteen and other unnamed investors funded the above mentioned top three venture capital investments for $147 Million:

1 Advanced Technology Ventures

2 Anthem Venture Partners

3 Brookside Capital Partners

4 Cape Securities

5 CSK Venture Capital

6 Foundation Capital

7 Glynn Ventures

8 Intel Capital

9 Latterell Venture Partners

10 Miramar Venture Partners

11 Mizuho Securities

12 Morgenthaler Ventures

13 Oak Investment Partners

14 Split Rock Partners

A total of 78 equity financings of private and public companies occurred during this reporting period. Each of the 78 equity financings are profiled in a weekly report which include venture financings, private placements, secondary offerings, PIPEs, and IPOs.

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