Software Firms Now 42% Of Venture Capital Invested In 2014

Just over $4B was invested in software deals by venture capitalists (VCs) during Q1, 2014, four times as much as biotechnology.

Software deals netted out 42% of all dollars invested in the first quarter of 2014, with biotechnology receiving 11%.  VCs invested $816M in IT Services or 9% of all dollars, making this the third largest investment category.  Interest in IT Services continues to accelerate, with dollars invested in this category increasing 33% compared to the prior quarter.

These findings are from the latest edition of The MoneyTree Report, a quarterly study of venture capital investment in the United States produced by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) using Thomson Reuters data.  You can find the full data sets of the study here in Microsoft Excel format.  The MoneyTree Report Q4 2013/ Full-year 2013 is also available in PDF form here and there is no opt-in to download it.

Take-Aways From The Study

• A total of $9.5B in 951 deals was invested in the first quarter of this year, up 12% in dollars and down 14% in the number of deals compared to the 4^th quarter of 2013.  In the previous quarter, a total of $8.4B was invested in 1,112 deals.
• In 2013, $11B (37%) of all venture investments were in software, $4.6B (16%) in biotechnology and $2.96B (10%) were in Media and Entertainment.  The following graphic shows the distribution of amounts invested by industry in 2013.  Please click on the graphic to expand for easier reading.

• In the first quarter of 2014, software companies also received three times the number of deals of the next closest industry category, Media & Entertainment.  46% or 126 software deals were completed in Q1, compared to 40 in Media & Entertainment. Biotechnology companies were third with 8% or 22 deals.  The following graphic provides a comparison of deals by industry for Q1, 2014.  Please click on the graphic to expand it for easier reading.

• Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, First Round Capital, New Enterprise Associates, Inc. and Andreessen Horowitz LLC completed the most venture capital deals in 2013, as the graphic below shows.  Please click on the graphic to expand for easier reading.

• Software’s dominance in Q1, 2014 relative to other industries is evident in the following graphic, showing 42% of dollars invested followed by biotechnology (11%) and IT Services (9%).  The study data shows nine of the 17 industries are shrinking it terms of venture investments.  Telecommunications is down 68%, Networking and Equipment down 47% and semiconductors, down 17%.  Please click on the graphic to expand it for easier reading.

• Overall first-time financing decreased 25% to $1.2B in Q1, with a corresponding 24% drop in the number of companies to 271.

• 48% of dollars invested during Q1 into companies receiving venture capital for the first time are in the software industry.  46% of the deals to 126 companies who captured $571M in Q1 lead to this industry dominating first sequencing investments.

• Top regions where startups received funding in Q1 include Silicon Valley (50% of all VC funding), New England (11%) and the New York Metro Area (10%).  The Los Angeles/Orange County area was fourth with 5% of all venture funding in Q1, 2014.