Friday, July 10, 2009

Rocky Mountain Companies See Around $648M In VC In Q2

The Rocky Mountain region looks to have had a very good, venture quarter in Q2 of this year, according to an analysis of Techrockies.com proprietary venture capital database, racking up $648m in venture capital investments in the quarter. Techrockies tracks day-by-day venture capital funding, with data from companies announcing funding; self-reported by both technology companies and venture firms; as well as regulatory filings and other sources.

The funding numbers are a big increase from Q1, when around $368M was invested in the region. The bulk of the deals were in Colorado, Utah, and Arizona. It's also up from Q2 of last year, when around $391M in deals were tracked.

This quarter's results were boosted by a number of very large venture deals, particularly, a $145M funding from Boulder-based Clovis Oncology in May. Other big deals included a $47.5M investment in Salt Lake's Fusion-io, a $40M investment in Tempe, Arizona-based LifeLock, and $30.0M invested in Boulder-based Tendril Networks in June.

The most active investment firms in the region in the quarter were Altira Group, Access Ventures, vSpring Capital, and New Enterprise Associates, all with two deals each.

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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