What’s going on in the venture capital world and where does Indiana rank compared to other states? We’ll let the experts provide the analysis (below). As far as Indiana’s status, the 14 deals in 2011 (ranking 26th among the states) were similar to previous years; the nearly $178 million invested (20th ranking), however, exceeded recent trends. In other words, we had bigger deals in 2011.
The State Science & Technology Institute offers the following on a national level:
U.S. venture capital activity continued to rebound in 2011, with total investment dollars reaching levels similar to venture capital activity before the late-2008 drop, according to the latest data from the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) Moneytree survey. Venture capitalists invested $28.4 billion last year in the U.S., up 30.3 percent over 2010. The NVCA/PWC announcement ranks 2011 the third highest year for investment in the past decade. Venture deals, however, grew by only 12.1 percent, stemming from higher valuations and continued support for portfolio companies.
Early stage investment activity grew substantially last year, while seed stage investment declined. VCs invested $8.3 billion in 1,414 early stage companies, an increase of 47 percent in terms of dollars and a 16 percent increase in deals over the previous year. Early stage investments represented about 29 percent of all venture dollars and 38 percent of deals, a modest increase over 2010. Seed stage investments, however, declined by 48 percent in terms of dollars to $919 million. Seed stage deals remained steady at 396. These numbers indicate that even though the overall trend in 2011 suggest a preference for larger deals, seed stage deals experienced a decline in average size.
Most states shared in the increase in venture activity last year. Among 2010′s top ten states for venture dollars, only North Carolina and Washington had decreases in activity in 2011. The decline caused North Carolina to drop out of the top ten for the year, replaced by Virginia where venture dollars increased by 61.8 percent to $607.6 million. California, which was the recipient of 51 percent of all venture dollars last year, experienced a 32.1 percent increase in investment.
View SSTI charts on dollars invested and deals.