Week 01/01/2005 through 01/09/2005

Prepared by: Dante Fichera, CPA

Announcement: On December 24, Co-founder and senior managing director of Advantage Capital Partners, David W. Bergmann lost his life when he fell through the ice on a pond near his home in Huntleigh, Mo., while successfully rescuing his beloved dog, Red.

This reporting period companies based in California operating in the Biotechnology industry and that have raised their Later round of financing led the pack in the amount of venture financing raised.

CapitalHunter.com was able to verify that $601 million of venture capital was invested in 49 U.S.-based companies during this week’s reporting period. The average deal size was approximately $12.27 million. The amount of venture capital invested this period increased by 117% from last periods $277 million. During 2004, our preliminary national venture capital estimates revealed that approximately 1,450 venture financings occurred for a total of $17.5 billion. Venture activity during Q4 2004 was approximately $4.7 billion which was 2.1% over Q3 2004 and 13.91% over Q4 2003. For more information feel free to contact our offices.

Geographically,12 California companies raised $291.15 million in venture financings. The largest private venture financing in California this period was into eHarmony.com. eHarmony raised $110 million and is a Pasadena based company that provides an online dating service that attempts to match compatible singles who are looking for long-term relationships.

The biotechnology sector raised 22% of the venture capital this period. Six biotechnology companies raised $132.9 million in venture financing. The largest private venture financing in the biotechnology sector this period was into Alexza Pharmaceuticals. Alexza raised $52 million in venture funding.

Companies raising their later round of financing led this week’s venture capital activity. Later stage financings represented 56% of the total venture capital deployed this period. The largest later round financing was into eHarmony.

The three largest venture deals this period are as follows:

The following twenty and other unnamed investors funded the above mentioned top three venture capital investments for $196 Million:

A total of 134 equity financings of private and public companies occurred during this reporting period. Each of the 134 equity financings are profiled in a weekly report which include venture financings, private placements, secondary offerings, PIPE’s, and IPO’s.

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