Thursday, April 2, 2009

Rocky Mountain Firms Raise Around $368M In Quarter

Rocky Mountain area firms raised around $368M in Q1 of this year, according to an analysis of the techrockies.com venture database. According to the numbers, the investment level was up significantly from Q4 of last year, when only $197.5M was invested in the region, but was down from Q1 of last year, when there was $492.65M invested in the area. The quarterly numbers were boosted significantly by the $128M invested in fiber-based bandwidth provider Zayo Group in its Series B. The totals were also helped by a big private equity investment in Greenwood Village, Colorado-based Open Range, which raised $100M for its high speed broadband efforts.

On a state-by-state basis, this quarter was dominated by Colorado, which saw $341.6M of that $368M in investments; Utah only saw $24.85, and Arizona only $1.5M in investments.

Techrockies.com tracks day-to-day venture capital activity in the Rocky Mountain region, and uses venture data disclosed by companies announcing funding; self-reported by both technology companies and venture firms; as well as regulatory filings and other sources.

The totals will differ from other venture capital surveys due later this month, due to sources of information, timing of funding events, and classification of data, but should be close in terms of venture deals tracked. PricewaterhouseCoopers/National Venture Capital Association, and Ernst & Young/VentureOne will release their quarterly nationwide results of venture activity later this month.

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