Trend in Q3 Venture Data From Dow Jones Falls in Line

The quarterly venture capital survey by Dow Jones VentureSource was released earlier today, showing a trend that’s generally in line with data previously reported by CB Insights and The MoneyTree Report. Dow Jones says venture-backed companies in the U.S. raised $5.5 billion in the third quarter—a 5 percent drop in funding from the $5.8 billion that Dow Jones counted in the same quarter last year, but a 2.5 percent increase in the number of deals.

The trend was similar—but not as pronounced—as data from CB Insights, which said the $5.4 billion in third-quarter venture capital nationwide was the lowest funding level since mid-2009, but the 715 venture deals was the second highest deal tally in two years. The MoneyTree Report on third-quarter venture funding showed a similar trend, with $4.8 billion was invested in 780 venture deals nationwide during the recent quarter.

I’ve abandoned all hope that the numbers from these different surveys will ever match. Each group uses different methodologies, with variations in the way they categorize some deals and sometimes when and how venture deals get counted. The differences sometimes highlight interesting issues, but this time all three are trending in the same direction—a larger number of smaller venture deals.

Dow Jones reported that software investments during the quarter increased by two-thirds to just over $1 billion (in 159 deals) nationwide, compared with $614 million (in 107 deals) during the third quarter of 2009. Venture investments in healthcare garnered more than $1.7 billion (164 deals), declining almost 11 percent from more than $1.9 billion (187 deals) during the same quarter of 2009. Venture investments in information technology, which includes software, totaled $1.84 billion (232 deals) nationwide, a 34 percent increased over the $1.37 billion (189 deals) in the year ago quarter.

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.