Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Silicon Valley VC Deals Total Nearly $2B In Q3

PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association has released its Money Tree venture capital results for Q3 of 2006, showing that there was $6.2 billion invested in 797 deals, down by 8 percent from Q2, but the best third quarter since 2001. The quarter also marked the third successive quarter where there was more than $6B invested nationally. Silicon Valley continues to lead the nation in venture capital activity, with $1,988.6 million in 206 venture capital deals reported for the quarter. The most active area of investment was the Life Sciences sector, which nationally saw $1.8B going into 177 deals. Software continued to slip, and saw a 19 percent decline in investment dollars, and a 24 percent decline in deals from Q2, with $1.09B in 186 deals. Early stage investments were also up, with an increase by 10 percent in the amount of money going to seed and early stage companies. Post-money valuations for Early Stage companies rose to $15.4M for the twelve months ending Q2 2006. Overall, Seed and Early Stage companies accounted for 35 percent of the deals nationwide.