10% more invested in Bay Area - Venture capitalists cut back 7% nationally last quarter

10% more invested in Bay Area
Venture capitalists cut back 7% nationally last quarter

Deborah Gage, Chronicle Staff Writer

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Venture capital investment fell nationally last quarter for the first time in nearly three years, but the Bay Area bucked the trend, according to numbers released today by Dow Jones.

In the United States, venture investments fell 7 percent from the same period a year ago to $6.84 billion invested in 603 deals.

Locally, however, investments rose 10 percent to $2.56 billion, which was invested in 213 deals, up four from a year ago.

The Bay Area also had two of the country's largest deals. In Santa Rosa, TriVascular2 spun out of Boston Scientific and raised $65 million in a first round led by MPM Capital and New Enterprise Associates. It plans to develop devices to treat abdominal aortic aneurysms.

In Brisbane, Glam Media, which owns Web sites aimed at women and also sells ads on a network of 450 lifestyle Web sites, raised $64.6 million in financing.

California accounted for nearly half of all deals and all venture money invested in the United States.


E-mail Deborah Gage at dgage@sfchronicle.com.

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This article appeared on page C - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle