Monday, January 19, 2009

Rocky Mountain Venture Capital Investments Up

Rocky Mountain region venture capital investments are up year to year, bucking the national trend, according to a report released by Dow Jones VentureSource over the weekend.

According to the quarterly venture capital survey by Dow Jones, the Rocky Mountain Region (including Colorado, Utah, and Arizona), had $405.62M in venture capital investments in Q4 of 2008, up from $373.0M in investments for Q4 of 2007. The increase in venture investments bucked national numbers, which saw venture totals drop 8% for the year, to $28.8 billion, and a drop of 30% for the quarter to $5.5 billion.

The strong performance in the Rocky Mountain region was led by investments in Colorado, which saw $343.68M in investments in Q4, up from both Q3's $274.4M and only $71.90M in Q4 of 2007. Utah had $45.90M in investments for Q4, with Arizona getting $16.04m.

Colorado's healthy venture totals were helped by $158.4M in energy and utility related investments, and $132.28M in Information Technology investments. The energy and utility investments matched an overall increase in renewable and clean technology deals nationally, which saw its yearly totals double to $3.6 billion in 124 deals for the year.

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