Week 10/11/2004 through 10/17/2004

Prepared by: CapitalHunter.com Staff

What’s Hot this reporting period are venture backed companies based in California operating in the Biotechnology industry and have raised their Series B round of financing.

On Wall Street, CapitalHunter.com identified the following IPO’s and Secondary Offerings:

1. CoTherix had its initial public offering this week for $30 million and trades under the ticker CTRX.
2. China Finance Online had its initial public offering this week for $65 million and trades under the ticker JRJC.
3. PlanetOut had its initial public offering this week for $41.9 million and trades under the ticker LGBT.
4. EMC Insurance Group raised additional capital through a secondary offering for $37.5 million and trades under the ticker EMCI.

CapitalHunter.com was able to verify that $308 million of venture capital was invested in 26 U.S.-based companies during this week’s reporting period. The average deal size was approximately $11.85 million. The amount of venture capital invested this period increased by 61% from last week’s $192 million.

Geographically,11 California companies raised $81.76 million in venture financings. The largest private venture financing in California this period was into Reflectivity raised $18 million. Reflectivity is a Sunnyvale based company that is developing innovative optical MEMS (micro-electro-mechanical-systems) devices for high definition displays and other exciting applications.

The biotechnology sector raised 43% of the venture capital this period. Six biotechnology companies raised $136.3 million in venture financing. PharmAthene Maryland based company was the largest financing in this category raising $50 million in venture financing. PharmAthene is dedicated to the rapid development of important and novel biotherapeutics to address biological pathogens and chemicals that may be used as weapons of bioterror.

Companies raising their Series B round of financing led this week’s venture capital activity. Series B financings represented 58% of the total venture capital deployed this period. The largest Series B financing was into PharmAthene.

The three largest venture deals this period are as follows:

The following fourteen and other unnamed investors funded the above mentioned top three venture capital investments for $109.5 million:

A total of 49 worldwide equity financings of private and public companies occurred during this reporting period. Each of the 49 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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