By
Donald Zuhn --
Earlier
today, VentureDeal, a venture capital database offering
information on U.S. technology startup companies, venture capital firms, and company
financings, released its latest quarterly venture capital funding reports covering
the fourth quarter of 2009. The
VentureDeal reports track venture capital funding in 15 technology-based
sectors, with separate reports focusing on alternative energy, clean tech,
energy, and environmental sectors; biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and medical
device sectors; internet, digital media, ecommerce, and software sectors; and
telecom, wireless, mobile, and communications sectors.
The
biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and medical devices report, which can be obtained here,
shows that the three sectors took in $1.9 billion in venture capital financing
during the fourth quarter of 2009.
According to the report, this represented virtually no change when
compared with the third quarter results. However, while medical device and pharmaceutical venture funding dropped
by 20% and 29%, respectively, in the fourth quarter, the report noted that
biotech funding increased a "whopping" 65% during the quarter,
reversing a previous downward trend.
In addition, the biotech sector saw a 19% increase in the number of
companies funded in the fourth quarter.
In particular, 69 biotech companies secured $871 million last
quarter. In contrast, 78 medical device companies secured $752 million and 45 pharmaceutical
companies secured $460 million during the fourth quarter.
As
for the other sectors monitored by VentureDeal, the alternative energy, clean tech,
energy, and environmental sectors took in $232 million among 33 companies in
the fourth quarter, which constituted a 45% decrease in funding and a 6%
decrease in companies being funded; the internet, digital media, ecommerce, and
software sectors secured $1.8 billion among 286 companies, which marked a 38%
increase in funding and a 25% increase in companies being funded; and the telecom,
wireless, mobile, and communications sectors took in $231 million among 49
companies, which constituted a 17% decrease in funding and a 14% increase in
companies being funded.
The
funding totals in the VentureDeal reports were similar to totals presented in the
latest National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) MoneyTree Report on venture
funding, which was released in January (see
"NVCA Report Shows Slight Drop in 4Q Venture Funding and Sharp Decline for
2009"). While the VentureDeal reports indicate
that 560 companies secured $4.16 billion during the fourth quarter, the
NCVA report showed that there were 794 deals involving $5.0 billion in the
fourth quarter. The differences
between the two reports with regard to total venture funding may be due to the
difference in the number of sectors each organization monitors, as VentureDeal examines 15
sectors and the NVCA looks at 16 sectors. As for biotech funding, the NVCA report indicated that there were 108
deals involving $1.0 billion during the fourth quarter.
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