PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) have released their Q2 2007 venture capital report, finding that there was $993M in venture capital raised by Southern California firms this quarter. Southern California, including Los Angeles, Orange County, and San Diego regions defined by the study, again ranked number two in the nation in terms of dollar volume in venture capital. Southern California was second behind Silicon Valley, which had over $2.5B in deals for the quarter, but ahead of New England, which had $862.4M in venture investments.

Nationally, there was $7.1B in venture capital investments, which the report said was the highest level since 2001. The surge in investments was driven by seed and early stage deals, which the report found was an increase of 31 percent from the prior quarter.

The biggest deal in Southern California for the quarter went to San Diego's Peregrine Semiconductor, which raised $51.9M for its RF integrated circuits; other large deals included $50M for biotech firm Sangart, $40M for Orange County-based Tri Alpha Energy, and nearly $40M for TargeGen, in San Diego. In total, San Diego led the region with $477.6M in investments for the quarter, followed by Los Angeles with $277.1M, with Orange County reporting $178M in venture investments.

The most active venture investors this quarter located in the region were Rustic Canyon Partners (6 deals), and the Tech Coast Angels, DFJ Frontier, Enterprise Partners, and Mission Ventures (all with 5 deals). Deal flow for the quarter in Southern California was driven by biotechnology ($222.8M in deals), medical devices and equipment ($125.8M), and media and entertainment ($103.4M).