Friday, January 18, 2013
Rocky Mountain Region Racks Up $367.8M In VC In Q4
The Rocky Mountain region saw a healthy uptick in venture capital investments in Q4 of 2012, trumping a overall national decline in investments -- thanks to a big quarter in both Arizona and Utah. According to numbers released via the latest MoneyTree Report by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), based on data from Thomson Reuters, a total of $367.8M in venture capital was invested in the region in Q4 of 2012, up significantly from $229.4M in deals in Q4 of 2011. Investments were also up quarter-to-quarter, compared to Q3, when $261.8M was invested in local companies.
Utah led the region in terms of state-by-state deals, reporting $138.25M in 12 deals. That was a very significant gain--more than twice the investment rate--over Q4 of 2011, when the state only had $63.4M in investments. Next on the list was Arizona, with a total of $121.0M in investments in 3 deals; that was also a massive gain over the mere $9.25M invested in Q4 of 2011 in Arizona. Colorado, usually the lead company in terms of venture funding in the region, had a mere $85.8M in funding across 21 companies, down significantly from the $163.0M invested in the region in Q4 of 2011. New Mexico had $15.0M in funding across 4 deals, with Idaho showing up with one deal worth $8.0M. Gains in Arizona came primarily due to a gigantic, $90.0M funding round for IO Data Centers in Phoenix.
Nationally, for the quarter, there was $6.4 billion invested into 968 companies. For the year, there was $26.5 billion invested in 3,698 deals, a 10 percent drop in dollars and 6 percent decline in deals over 2011. PwC and the NVCA said that overall venture capital investments in the nation showed a decline for the first time in three years.
Image courtesy BigStock.com