Monday, October 23, 2006

U.S. Venture Capitalists Invest $6.36B In Q3

Ernst & Young and Dow Jones VentureOne are reporting today that there was $6.36B invested in 611 venture capital deals in the third quarter, with a slight increase in both the number of deals and amount of investment versus a year ago. The firms said that overall deal count increased 2% from Q3 of 2005, and capital investments were up 5%. The firms also found that there was an increase in early stage financing, with 38% of all venture capital rounds going to seed- and first-round deals. Among the more popular categories for investments in the quarter was alternative energy and energy conservation, which saw $110.2M in investments in 14 deals, about 2 and a half times the same period last year. Total investments this year now stand at $19.46B in 1,851 deals. PricewaterhouseCoopers releases its quarterly Money Tree venture capital results tomorrow.