Print
Email
Print Edition Stories
Companies born in the recession
MooBella provides on-demand ice cream demo
MHT's Julie Donnelly: Life science startups finding investments
As the economy at large looks to signs of a recovery under way, the U.S. venture capital economy remains stalled, according to third-quarter numbers released Saturday by industry tracker Dow Jones VentureSource.
Nationwide, VC investors put just $5.1 billion into 616 startup companies during the third quarter of 2009. That was 38 percent down from the $8.2 billion invested over 663 deals during the third quarter of 2008, and put the VC industry on track for its worst investment year since 2003.
The second quarter’s numbers -- $5.4 billion over 595 deals -- were seen as a sign of a VC recovery under way, as they reversed a downward trend by posting the first quarter-over-quarter increase in three quarters. However, the most recent quarter’s dollar figure lagged those numbers by 6 percent.
Venture investing across the New England states took just as bad a stumble, falling 37 percent short of Q3 2008, with $525.5 million invested over 76 deals. In the same period last year, New England companies took in $833.7 million over 89 deals.
Among New England VC’s, Polaris Venture Partners and North Bridge Venture Partners were the busiest, with six deals each. Sigma partners did the third most deals, with four, and five VC firms tied for fourth, with three deals each.
Nationally, information technology recovered as the lead investment category, taking slightly more investment than health care. In Q2, health-care investment outpaced IT for the first time on record.
Of the reported New England deals, 19 were first, second or seed-stage financings. Among the 10 largest deals, all but two -– ice cream machine maker MooBella Inc. at $18 million, and industrial cleaning products maker Advanced Electron Beams Inc. at $14.3 million -– were in life sciences sectors.
The largest reported venture financing in New England went to Cambridge biotech Epizyme Inc. -– a $32 million 2nd-round funding closed on the last day of the quarter, with participation from Amgen Ventures, Astellas Venture Capital, Bay City Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and MPM Capital.
Comments
If you are commenting using a Facebook account, your profile information may be displayed with your comment depending on your privacy settings. By leaving the 'Post to Facebook' box selected, your comment will be published to your Facebook profile in addition to the space below.
RSS Feeds
