MoneyTree: Colorado VC investment at highest since 2001
Venture capital investment in Colorado companies rose to a seven-year high in the first quarter of 2007, according to the MoneyTree report from PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association, released Saturday.
Another major VC report, the Quarterly Venture Capital Report by Dow Jones VentureSource, also released Saturday, showed a 145 percent surge in Colorado VC investment during the quarter.
According to MoneyTree, a total of $297.7 million was invested in 26 companies in the first quarter, the highest level since 2001.
The success of the quarter owed a lot to a $130 million investment in Range Fuels Inc. of Broomfield, a biotechnology company involved in cellulose ethanol production technology.
But the other 25 deals together brought in far more than the $100.4 million that was invested in 13 companies in the first quarter of 2007, according to MoneyTree data published last year.
"The funding of Range Fuels Inc. represents an exciting trend for the state," Bob Puls, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Denver, said in a statement. "This, along with ConocoPhillips' announcement of the creation of a Louisville-based facility devoted to the advancement of renewable energy technology, emphasize Colorado¹s presence in the clean tech/alternative energy industries nationwide. There is also a healthy diversification for the Denver-Boulder corridor, which has long been dominated by the data storage and software industries."
The medical devices and equipment industry had a strong quarter, with five companies receiving nearly $91 million faxless payday loans. Although software industry funding declined, nine software companies — many in early or expansion stages — received funding, Puls said.
Noteworthy deals mentioned in MoneyTree and/or the Quarterly Venture Capital Report included:
- Range Fuels Inc., $130 million
- Taligen Therapeutics of Aurora, a biotechnology company, $65 million
- SomaLogic Inc. of Boulder, a medical device maker, $35 million
- Lanx LLC of Broomfield, a medical device maker, $25 million
- IntelliDx of Boulder, a medical device maker, $21.5 million
- Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy Inc. of Boulder, a retailer, $12 million
- Tendril Networks Inc. of Boulder, telecommunications, $12 million.
Nationally, venture capitalists invested $7.1 billion in 922 deals in the first quarter, down 8.5 percent from the fourth quarter of 2007. Despite the decline, the quarter was within recent quarterly investment levels, and was the fifth-highest quarter since 2001, according to MoneyTree, which bases its results on data obtained from Thomson Reuters.
Meanwhile, according to the Dow Jones VentureSource report, total of nearly $260 million was invested in 13 Colorado companies in the first quarter, up from $106 million in 11 companies in the same quarter a year earlier.