Tuesday, January 2, 2007

Southern California Venture Investments Hit $3.4B For 2006

Southern California's Venture Capital investments totaled roughly $534.7M in the fourth quarter of 2006, according to data from socalTECH, with total disclosed investments in the region for the year totaling just over $3.4B. Southern California's most active investment group in the fourth quarter continued to be the Tech Coast Angels, which made nine investments in the quarter; followed by Enterprise Partners, which made three investments. Among the biggest deals in Southern California for the quarter were Kalypsys, a biopharmaceutical firm located in San Diego, which raised $100M in a November financing; funding for Los Angeles-based SpotRunner, which raised $40M in an unannounced Series C funding; followed by Pasadena-based Xencor, which raised $39M in the quarter as part of an overall $45M investment round.

For the year, the most active investment groups investing in the Southern California region were the Tech Coast Angels, with 19 disclosed deals; Domain Associates and Enterprise Partners with ten deals each; followed by Intel Capital and Mission Ventures with 9 deals apiece.

socalTECH tracks day-to-day venture capital activity in the Southern California region, and uses venture data disclosed by companies announcing funding; self-reported by both technology companies and venture firms; as well as regulatory filings and other sources. The totals reported will differ from other venture capital surveys, due to sources of information, timing of funding events, and classification of data. PricewaterhouseCoopers/National Venture Capital Association, and Ernst & Young/VentureOne will release their quarterly nationwide results of venture activity later this month.

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