VentureDeal issued its second-quarter VC funding reports, and the sector drawing the biggest increase in private financing is, not surprisingly, energy.
During the period, 60 companies got $1.3 billion in backing. That represents a nearly 300% jump from the first quarter of 2008, and a 67% increase in the number of companies funded, the report said. Naturally, the numbers were skewed a bit by a few large deals in the alternative energy sector including solar service provider SunEdison's $131 million fundraising and BrightSource Energy Inc.'s $115 million Series C round.
The sector was also boosted by fundings for cutting-edge energy technologies, such as advanced batteries and wireless power transmission.
VentureDeal, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based VC data provider, said the life sciences sector experienced a 3% drop, to $2.27 billion, compared to the first quarter. Despite several fat Series A biotech fundings in the quarter, including $25 million for IRX Therapeutics, $35 million for SomaLogic and $21 million for Itero Biopharma, that subsector remained flat. Pharma fundings dropped 14%, to $696 million, quarter to quarter.
Other notable developments in the quarter:
- Ecommerce fundings quintupled to $93 million among 14 companies.
- Internet companies saw an aggregate decline of 16% in the amount invested during the second quarter.
- Funding for digital media companies, which includes video game producers and ad networks, continued to slide. These companies got 10% less ($297 million in aggregate) than the first quarter.
- Software fundings climbed 3%, to $1.3 billion, allocated among 201 companies.
- Olaf de Senerpont Domis
See VentureDeal's report on energy funding
See VentureDeal's report on life sciences funding
See VentureDeal's report on Internet, digital media, ecommerce and software fundings
See VentureDeal's report on communications fundings
See Aug. 4 story on cleantech VC from TheDeal.com
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