The fifth installment of SSTI's Tech Talkin' Govs series includes excerpts from speeches delivered in Maryland, Montana, Oklahoma, Texas, and Utah. The first four installments are available in the Jan. 5, Jan. 12, Jan. 19 and Jan. 26 issues of the Digest.

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 the first half of 2012, venture capitalists invested $13.1 billion in 1,707 deals, according to data from the quarterly survey conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA). This represents a marked decline from the first half of last year, when investors completed 1,942 deals with $14.7 billion. Though activity picked up in the second quarter (Q2) in 2012, both deals and dollars remained lower than the same quarter last year.