Surveys Agree on Rising Tide of VC Activity, But Differ on the Ebb and Flow

deals list we got from MoneyTree. (CB Insights did not provide a top deals list for specific cities.)

Some other observations from the data:

—While all three surveys showed year-over-year increases, both MoneyTree and VentureSource said venture activity during the first three months of 2010 had declined from the previous quarter. Analysts nevertheless concluded that the climate for venture investing appears to be improving, and the NVCA noted encouragingly that market conditions for venture-backed exits had improved, with nine venture-backed startups going public during the quarter—compared to none during the same quarter last year. The NVCA also said the total of 111 venture-backed startups acquired during the first quarter was the highest number ever.

—All three surveys showed a sharp increase in VC investments in cleantech and energy startups. The MoneyTree Report said clean technology firms raised $773 million, an 87 percent increase from the previous quarter. About half of the top 10 deals of the quarter involved companies focused on clean energy, with electric vehicle maker Fisker Automotive of Irvine, CA, getting $115.3 million during the quarter.

—Dow Jones VentureSource said investments in information technology startups (which includes communications, computers, semiconductors, and software) continues to be the biggest sector for VC investing—accounting for almost a third of the deal flow during the quarter.

—The MoneyTree Report (which splits software, computers, and IT services into separate categories) said life sciences continues to rank as the No. 1 sector, accounting for 28 percent of the $4.7 billion invested during the quarter. Even so, the $1.3 billion invested in life sciences was down by 26 percent compared to the previous quarter. CB Insights, which also classifies healthcare as the largest single sector for venture money, said VC investments in healthcare declined from the previous quarter by 24 percent, to almost $1.4 billion.

[Editor’s note: Special thanks to Xconomy Boston Assistant Editor Erin Kutz for help with this chart.]

CB Insights Dow Jones  VentureSource MoneyTree Report*
Q1 2010

$5.9B

731deals         

$4.7B

597 deals

$4.7B

681 deals
Q1 2009

$3.9B

483 deals

$4.2B

522 deals

$3.4B

635 deals
Q4 2009

$5.5B

687 deals

$6.9 B

753 deals

$5.2B

832 deals

*From PricewaterhouseCoopers, National Venture Capital Association, and Thomson Reuters

Pages: Page 1, Page 2

Author: Bruce V. Bigelow

In Memoriam: Our dear friend Bruce V. Bigelow passed away on June 29, 2018. He was the editor of Xconomy San Diego from 2008 to 2018. Read more about his life and work here. Bruce Bigelow joined Xconomy from the business desk of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was a member of the team of reporters who were awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for uncovering bribes paid to San Diego Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in exchange for special legislation earmarks. He also shared a 2006 award for enterprise reporting from the Society of Business Editors and Writers for “In Harm’s Way,” an article about the extraordinary casualty rate among employees working in Iraq for San Diego’s Titan Corp. He has written extensively about the 2002 corporate accounting scandal at software goliath Peregrine Systems. He also was a Gerald Loeb Award finalist and National Headline Award winner for “The Toymaker,” a 14-part chronicle of a San Diego start-up company. He takes special satisfaction, though, that the series was included in the library for nonfiction narrative journalism at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Bigelow graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1977 with a degree in English Literature and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1979. Before joining the Union-Tribune in 1990, he worked for the Associated Press in Los Angeles and The Kansas City Times.