Monday, January 22, 2007

U.S. Venture Investments Hits Five Year High

Ernst & Young and Dow Jones VentureOne released their quarterly and annual venture capital investment numbers today, saying that U.S. Venture Capital investing his a five year high in 2006, reaching $25.75B in investments. According to the firms' report, that, overall, there were 2,454 deals in the year. For the quarter, there were 561 deals and $5.82B invested, down both in deal count and dollars from fourth quarter of 2005. Fourth quarter deals were down by 13%, and dollars invested declined by 2% from the comparable quarter. According to the report, the Bay Area continued to remain the predominant market for venture capital, and had 811 deals and $9.05 billion invested in the year. The deal count was roughly equivalent to 2005, and capital increased by 7%. Key investment sectors were web-heavy information services; medical devices and equipment; and the alternative energy industry. PricewaterhouseCoopers releases its quarterly results and breakdowns tomorrow.