Venture Capitalists Regain Confidence In Start-Up Firms
Venture capitalists are slowly getting their groove back.
Since last summer, funding for the youngest start-up businesses has remained essentially flat "despite anecdotal buzz of a resurgence," industry analysts have said. Now, figures for the second quarter show that the upbeat anecdotes are becoming reality, albeit gradually.
Seed and early stage companies accounted for 36.8% of all companies funded in the second quarter, a level not seen since the nasty technology downturn began in the first quarter of 2001, according to the PricewaterhouseCoopers/Thomson Venture Economics/National Venture Capital Association MoneyTree Survey set for release today.
Overall, venture investing rose to $5.6 billion during the second quarter from $5 billion in the first quarter of 2004, the study found. Year to year, investment was up 19% from $4.7 billion. The number of deals also rose to 761 in the second quarter, up from 686 in the first quarter of the year and up from 727 in the second quarter of last year.
But it's the uptick in early stage investments that has industry experts saying the venture-capital industry has started to move past the wicked fallout from the tech-sector collapse. While investment activity ticks up, the venture industry continues to grapple with three-year double-digit negative returns. One-year returns, however, have turned positive with the improved market for initial public offerings.
On a percentage basis, the signs of activity in seed and early stage investing are positive, with investment activity rising to 36.8% from 33% the quarter before. In dollar terms, funding rose about 34%, quarter to quarter. Year to year, the number of investments in seed and early stage companies remained about the same, but funding in dollar terms rose 19%. Historically, the activity is off from the high seen in the fourth quarter of 1995, when 50.7% of funding went to seed and early stage companies. But it is well above the low of 28.5% for seed and early stage deals reached in the fourth quarter of 2001, according to the MoneyTree data.
Meanwhile, the number of later-stage deals -- funding for the most mature young companies -- stayed flat for the quarter at about 18%. Funding for start-ups in that category has risen steadily from a low of 7.7% in the second quarter of 2000 to a high of 20.6% in the fourth quarter of 2003, the data show. "The industry seems to have worked its way through the later-stage companies funded in 1999 and 2000 and is now turning its attention to a crop of new technologies," says John S. Taylor, the vice president of research for the NVCA.
Analysts attribute much of the new activity to the fact that venture firms have raised new funds and begun to invest them.
"It's not surprising to me that the early stage investments are starting to accelerate," says Steve Baloff, a general partner with Advanced Technology Ventures, a venture firm based in Palo Alto, Calif., and Waltham, Mass. Over the past six months, many venture firms have raised new funds and they have begun to deploy that capital into new start-ups, he says. At the same time, firms investing the last of their capital into later-stage deals have reached the end of those investment cycles, he says.
In the aggregate, 229 early stage companies and 51 "seed" companies were funded during the second quarter, receiving $1.9 billion, or 22% of the quarter's investment, the highest in seven quarters. In the first quarter of the year, 193 early stage and 39 "seed" companies attracted $932 million. By comparison, 2,894 early stage and 670 seed companies that commandeered $29 billion in 2000 during the tech boom, or 43% of the deal flow that year.
Heartening to Silicon Valley, software remained the largest industry sector, with 212 companies attracting $1.2 billion for the second quarter, the MoneyTree survey found. Forty-four networking companies raised $459 million, mostly in follow-on rounds; 59 telecommunications companies raised $518 million. "When I look at deals being done in this area, people are still looking at the remnants of the Internet as the strongest part of the [information technology] community," says Jesse Reyes, a research analyst at Thomson Venture Economics.
The life-sciences sector, which includes biotechnology and medical devices, continued to remain near historical highs, as it has for the past eight quarters. Investments in that sector totaled $1.41 billion, or 25% of the quarter's venture capital. However, investments fell in biotechnology companies, which has led investment dollars since the downturn. Analysts called it a blip, not a trend. Eighty-five biotech companies attracted $923 million, down from the $968 million that went into 77 biotech companies in the first quarter of 2004.
Meanwhile, funding for 70 medical-device companies jumped 40% to $485 million; that compares with the $344 million that went to 56 companies in the first quarter of the year. "Life sciences continue to garner a significant amount of money and I don't see that changing," said Mark Heesen, president of the National Venture Capital Association.
One new area that saw an uptick in investing was media and entertainment, led by two very large deals: $60 million for Sí TV, a Latin-theme cable television network, and $70 million for online publisher TechTarget.com, of Needham, Mass.
The investment trends were similar among early stage companies. Seventy-nine software companies raised $326.7 million, followed by 35 biotech companies, which raised $252 million. The telecom sector pulled in $133 million. Seventeen semiconductor companies raised $104 million, followed by 29 medical device companies which raised $102 million.
风险投资重新青睐初创公司
风险投资又开始跃跃欲试了。
行业分析师们指出，从去年夏天以来，尽管关于风险投资复苏的传闻日渐尘上，对刚刚起步的初创公司的投资却一直是不温不火。如今，第二季度的数据显示传言已变成了现实，虽然是逐步升温的。
根据昨天公布的PricewaterhouseCoopers/Thomson Venture Economics/National Venture Capital Association MoneyTree Survey报告，种子阶段和初创阶段企业占第二季度受风险投资资助的公司总数的36.8%，创下了2001年第一季度科技业陷入低迷以来的最好水平。
调查发现，当季的风险投资总额由50亿美元升至56亿美元。与上年同期相比，投资总额上升了19%。第二季度的交易量也从上季的686笔升至761笔，也高于上年同期的727笔。
正是对初创公司投资的上升使行业专家认为，风险投资业开始走出了科技业衰退的阴影。虽然投资活动有所增加，但风险投资业三年期的投资回报率依然为负两位数。不过，随著首次公开募股市场的好转，一年期的投资回报已经转为正值。
从百分比上看，对种子阶段和初创阶段企业的投资比较活跃，第二季度的相关投资从上季的33%升至36.8%。以美元计价的投资额较上季增长了34%左右。与上年同期相比，对这部分企业的风险投资额大体持平，但以美元计价的投资额增长了19%。从历史上看，1995年第四季度的投资达到了最高点，当时50.7%的投资给予了种子阶段和初创阶段企业。不过MoneyTree的数据显示，第二季度对这部分企业的投资比率仍远远高于2001年第四季度的低点28.5%。
而对后期阶段的企业（最成熟的新兴公司）的投资与上季持平，约在18%。相关数据显示，对此类公司的投资在2000年第二季度创下低点7.7%，此后稳步回升，至去年第四季度创下高点20.6%。国家风险投资协会(National Venture Capital Association)负责研究的副总裁约翰?泰勒(John S. Taylor)说，风险投资业似乎不再关注1999年和2000年投资的那些处于创业后期阶段的公司，而是把注意力转向了大量新技术企业。
分析师们把新冒出的不少风险投资归于风险投资公司筹集了新的资金，开始进行投资。
位于加利福尼亚州和马萨诸塞州的风险投资公司Advanced Technology Ventures的合伙人史蒂夫?巴罗夫(Steve Baloff)说，对于初创公司投资的升温一点也不令他吃惊。在过去6个月里，许多风险投资公司筹集了新的资金，并开始把资金投入初创公司。他指出，与此同时，对于那些创业后期阶段企业的投资周期已经终结。
总而言之，共有229家初创公司和51家种子公司在第二季度获得了价值19亿美元的风险投资，占当季投资的22%，是过去7个季度以来的最高水平。在第一季度，193家初创公司和39家种子公司吸引了9.32亿美元。相比之下，2,894家初创公司和670家种子公司在科技业处于鼎盛时期的2000年吸引了290亿美元的资金，占当年投资额的43%。
软件业依然是矽谷的主角，MoneyTree的调查显示，212家公司在第二季度吸引了12亿资金。44家网络公司筹资4.59亿美元，其中大多为后续投资；59家电信公司筹资5.18亿美元。Thomson Venture Economics的研究分析师杰西?雷耶斯(Jesse Reyes)说，当人们还以为互联网是信息技术业的支柱时，风险投资却早已转向别的领域。
一如过去8个季度那样，包括生物技术和医疗设备的生命科学领域投资继续保持高位。第二季度的投资额为14.1亿美元，占当季总投资的25%。但是，对生物技术公司的投资下降，共有85家生物科技公司吸引了9.23亿美元的资金，而上季度有77家公司吸引了9.68亿美元的风险投资。分析师们称之为偶然现象，而非长期趋势。
而对70家医疗设备公司的投资猛增了40%，至4.85亿美元；上季度只有56家公司吸引了3.44亿美元。国家风险投资协会的主席马克?希斯(Mark Hessen)说，生命科学领域继续吸引了大量资金，这种状况好像没什么变化。
投资活动上升的一个领域是媒体和娱乐业，其中有线电视网Si TV及位于马萨诸塞州的网络出版商TechTarget.com分别获得了6,000万和7,000万美元的投资。
对初创公司的投资也体现了这一点。以行业排序，79家软件公司获得了3.267亿美元的投资，接下来是35家生物科技公司，筹资2.52亿美元；电信业1.33亿美元；17家半导体公司筹资1.04亿美元；29家医疗设备公司筹资1.02亿美元。
