Wednesday, October 2, 2013

RI VentureTracker™ --- Venture Investments in RI Companies Jump in Q2 2013


Venture capital investments in New England companies jumped to $823 million invested in 114 companies in the second quarter of 2013, according to the Money Tree Report by PriceWaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association based on data from Thomson Reuters.

Six of those companies are in Rhode Island, netting a total of $33,308,000.  This represents a 62% increase over investments in Rhode Island companies in the first quarter, when $20,500,000 was invested in 3 deals.  A total of $53,508,000 has been invested in 9 Rhode Island companies in the first half of 2013.

At the same time, investment levels across the U.S. also climbed.  Nationally, venture capitalists invested $6.7 billion in 913 deals in the second quarter.  This represents an increase of 12% in dollars and a 2% increase in deals compared to the first quarter of 2013, when $6.0 billion was invested in 896 deals.  The Software, Biotechnology and IT Services sectors received the most investment dollars for the quarter.  Investment in Internet companies also increased, with $1.9 billion being invested in 270 deals. 

Locally, the six companies to receive investments in the second quarter of 2013 are:

·               Greenbytes, Inc.of Providence, closed a Series C expansion round investment of $7,000,000 in April from Generation Investments Management LLP and Battery Ventures.  Greenbytes develops desktops virtualization storage optimization software to maximize the performance and capacity of virtual desktops.


·               Mnemosyne Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Providence, received a $5,166,000 early stage investment from existing investors Atlas Venture Advisors Inc. and Clol Biotechnology Industries, Ltd.  Mnemosyne is developing small molecule therapeutics to treat schizophrenia and other cognitive and neuropsychiatric disorder.

·               Neurotech USA, of Cumberland, received a later stage investment of $7,000,000 from Versant Venture Management LLC.  Neurotech is developing sight saving therapies for chronic retinal disease.

·               Swipely Inc., of Providence, closed a Series B expansion investment in May of $12,000,000.  The round was led by Shasta Ventures, with participation from existing investors Greylock Partners, Index Ventures and First Round Capital.  Swipely provides a payment processing platform and online tools to help businesses understand their customers through analyzing their credit card and debit card usage.

·               Teespring Inc., of Providence, allows non-profits and others to create and sell custom t-shirts with zero upfront costs.  Teespring received an undisclosed amount from FoundersClub Inc., as part of an overall investment of $1.1 million across 11 companies in Silicon Valley’s Y Combinator startup accelerator program.

·               VoltServer, Inc.., of Charlestown, closed on Series A investment of $2,142,000 in June.  Investors included Rhode Island’s Slater Technology Fund, Marker Hill Capital, Natural Resources Capital Management, Angel Street Capital and the Clean Energy Venture Group.  VoltServer has developed a digital power solution that enables telecom providers to remotely power remote equipment over existing communications wiring.


Related Posts:









No comments:

Post a Comment