Venture Capital Investment Increases, Internet Companies Benefit

In the second quarter (Q2) of 2013, venture investment totaled $6.7 billion over 913 deals, according to the quarterly survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA). Compared to the first quarter of 2013, the amount of venture capital investment increased 12 percent and the number of deals increased 2 percent. Although still well below venture capital investment highs in 2007, Q2 2013 had the largest total amount of investment in a year.

In total, $12.6 billion in venture investments has been made in the first half of 2013 in 1,776 deals. This represents a 3.8 percent decrease in the investment amount compared to the first half of 2012, but a slight uptick, 4 percent, in the number of deals completed.

The software and biotechnology sectors were the largest two recipients of venture capital investments. The software industry received $2.1 billion in investments, although this was a 7 percent drop from the previous quarter. Biotechnology rose 41 percent in investments to $1.3 billion in 103 deals. Other sectors receiving large totals of investments were IT ($654 million) and medical devices ($543 million).

Clean technology, which includes a range of activities across sectors, captured $364 million in 43 deals. This is a 6 percent investment decline and 31 percent deal decline, and is the lowest level since the fourth quarter of 2006.

Breaking investments down into company stage, seed and early stage companies together accounted for 57 percent of deals made, while expansion stage companies had 23 percent and later stage companies had the remaining 20 percent. Early stage companies closed on $137 million in 37 deals in Q2, while early stage companies had their highest levels of investments in six quarters.

First-time financings were also up in Q2, raising 24 percent to $1.1 billion, a 10 percent increase from Q1. The first-time financings were 17 percent of total investment amounts and 33 percent of total investment deals in the quarter.

Compared to the rather pessimistic survey from the first quarter of this year, and despite a decline in clean technology investments, this Q2 report appears to offer some optimism, with more than half of the sectors surveyed increasing in investment dollars.  In addition, a 39 percent rise to $1.9 billion was invested in “internet-specific companies” in Q2, with five of the 10 largest rounds in the quarter in the internet-specific sector. This suggests venture capitalists are looking for investment possibilities in more flexible and nimble companies with less overhead and low-capital-intensive operations.

Read the PWC Moneytree report at: http://www.pwc.com/us/en/press-releases/2013/2013-q2-moneytree-press-release.jhtml. See NVCA’s full table in excel format.