Venture capitalists spend $17.5 billion investing in start-ups

Nationally, companies raised $17.5 billion in the second quarter. The second quarter was the sixth consecutive quarter of more than $10 billion of venture capital invested. Virginia companies picked up $48 million in 22 deals in the quarter, a drop from $93.2 million in 25 deals a year ago.

Other large fund-raising successes in the second quarter included $7.3 million for pharmaceutical firm Vasculox, $2.5 million for agricultural startup Arvegenix and almost $1 million for Euclises Pharmaceuticals.

“We had to go back more than 10 years to find that level of both companies and dollars”, he said. The quarter’s investment total represents the most capital invested into the state’s sector since the fourth quarter in 2008, when biotech investments reached $109.5 million.

The biggest deal was a $84 million pumped into Greenwood Village-based Checkmarx, a software company that provides application security solutions.

Austin had 27 funding deals in the second quarter, compared to 30 funding deals in the first quarter, according to the MoneyTree Report.

The number of companies that received investment also edged up to 75, from 72 in the first quarter, according to the MoneyTree Report from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), based on data from Thomson Reuters. South San Francisco-based Denali Therapeutics-a neurodegeneration upstart backed by an ex-Genentech crew-came up with a huge $217 million round from Arch, Fidelity and Flagship. That was the biggest haul in at least three years.

The venture money machine backing The biotech industry in the US was operating in overdrive during the second quarter, generating a record amount of investing in new drug development as IPOs continue their romp in the third year of a wide-open market.

Still, Robinette was disappointed that North Carolina ranked 14th among the states for the amount of venture capital raised in the quarter.

Until the scientific innovation starts to peter out in terms of new products, Mills plans to remain an optimist. The 4-year-old company, which has 9,000 bloggers and 4,000 retailers, hopes to drive $500 million in sales this year, she said.

While venture-capital fundraising in the first half was up 15%, to $21.52 billion, it was still way off the pace of 2000, when venture firms rounded up about $85 billion.

The company’s $11.7 million is part of a $15 million round from New York-based Maverick Capital Ventures and strategic investors, but it won’t receive the rest until later this month. One, the healthy, growing VC activity in the software sector proves that there’s no tech bubble.

First-time financings were up nationally, too: Dollars rose 43 percent and the number of deals was up 18 percent from the first quarter to the second quarter.