Venture Capital Explodes in 1999

The most recent PricewaterhouseCoopers Moneytree™ survey reported $35.6 billion in venture capital investments were made in 1999 – 150% higher than the record survey results collected in 1998. In fact, at $14.69 billion, fourth quarter 1999 investments alone surpassed the survey results for all of 1998.

For the entire year of 1999, the number of companies receiving funds rose 41% to 4,006. In addition, average funding per company increased 71% to $8.9 million. Technology companies and Internet businesses claimed more than 90% of the venture capital investments for 1999 with investments jumping from $10.8 billion in 1998 to $32.4 billion in 1999. Internet investment companies increased their funding by more than six times, with funding climbing from $3.4 billion in 1998 to $19.9 billion in 1999 – this increase accounted for 56% of the total venture capital investments. Among Internet companies, business to consumer e-commerce sites received $4.46 billion, a 1,092% increase in funding levels over 1998.

By region, Silicon Valley received $5.7 billion in the fourth quarter of 1999, with a yearly total of a record $13.4 billion. Following were the New England area with $4.1 billion and the New York Metro area with $2.5 billion in 1999. All 10 regions of the country experienced some growth. The accompanying table (http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/021800t.htm) presents the survey results by state.

For more information and to see a complete breakdown of funding by topic, please visit the PricewaterhouseCoopers web site: http://204.198.129.80