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Southern California Firms Raise $762.88M in Q1

The latest numbers are out on venture capital investments in Southern California from PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association, finding that the region had nearly $762.88M invested in companies in the region during Q1 of 2014. According to the MoneyTree Report, based on data from Thomson Reuters, Los Angeles led the region with $309.9M in funding, followed by San Diego with $242.98M in investments, and $209.97M in investments in Orange County.

The biggest deals of the quarter came from San Luis Obispo-based MINDBODY, which raised $50.0M in the quarter, followed by San Diego's Lumena Pharmaceuticals with $45.5M; the third largest funding was for Aliso Viejo-based Aquesys raised $43.6M in funding. Carlsbad-based Luxtera raised $37.38M in its funding round.

The most active Southern California-based venture capital investors for Q1 were Correlation Ventures (10 investments); Upfront Ventures (9 deals); and Avalon Ventures (5 deals); Frost Data Capital invested in 4 companies during the quarter. The venture investors actually investing the most in Southern California itself were Upfront Ventures (5 investments); Frost Data Capital and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (4 investments each); then DFJ Frontier, Shasta Ventures, Versant Ventures, New Enterprise Associates, Siemer Ventures, and First Round Capital, all of which investd in 3 deals during the quarter.

The investment of $762.8M was a significant increase from Q1 of 2013, when only $571.0M was invested in the region; it was also an increase from Q4 of 2013, when $611.48M was invested in Southern California as a whole. Industry wise, the most active sector was Software, which had a commanding $253.5M in investments; Biotechnology saw $158.0M in investments, and Medical Devices and Equipment saw $93.94M in investments. Despite its reputation as an entertainment center, Southern California actually only saw around $57.4M in investments in companies considered Media and Entertainment compnaies.

Nationally, venture capitalists invested $9.5 billion into 951 deals during Q1, which was up 12 percent in terms of dollars, but down 14 percent in terms of deals compared with Q4 2013. Southern California's 85 deals for the quarter was also down ever so slightly from the 91 deals the region saw in Q4, despite the higher investment total.

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