Week 10/17/2005 through 10/23/2005

Prepared by Capital Hunter analysts

Biotechnology may have been the investment du jour last week, but diversity was definitely the course this week. While biotechnology received the most venture capital with 21% of this week’s invested dollars, several other industries received their share of the pot as well. Software captured 16% of this period’s funding, led by Westbury Partners and Investor Growth Capital’s $16 million Series D investment into Visiprise, which will be used to facilitate its recently announced merger with HMS Software. Electronics & Instrumentation also had a good week, having received 15% of this week’s funding, led by Lilliputian Systems $30.2 million Series C investment from Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers, Atlas Ventures and Rockport Capital Partners and Advanced Electron Beams $12.5 million investment from Atlas Ventures and General Catalyst Partners.

There was only one initial public offering this week, but it was also one of the most hotly anticipated stock offerings this year. The Chicago Board of Trade, or CBOT Holdings for short, priced at $54 a share but opened trading at $80.75 a share Wednesday, and has since climbed to over $130 a share after only four days of trading. Considering that the Chicago Mercantile Exchange's stock price has risen over 700% since its December 2002 IPO and some financial prognosticators are predicting the continued rise of both commodity prices and interest rates, it shouldn't be too surprising why the Chicago Board of Trade has drawn so much interest from investors and speculators looking to cash in on the trend:

The Chicago Board of Trade priced at $172.3 million on the New York Stock Exchange and is a Chicago-based derivatives and futures exchange.

Please come visit our new and improved web site at CapitalHunter.com. We have made improvements to both the look and functionality of our web site, including business resources, glossary terms, and other helpful information provided free of charge for the budding entrepreneur. For private equity firms, consulting firms, business journals, and individuals looking to do research on venture backed companies, you can still gain complete access to our entire database for $59 a quarter and $199 a year.

CapitalHunter.com was able to verify that $370 million of venture capital was invested in 39 U.S.-based companies during this week’s reporting period. The average deal size was approximately 9.49 million. The amount of venture capital invested this period decreased by 16% compared to last periods $443 million.

Once again, California was the most popular destination for venture capital. Fourteen California companies raised $146 million in new equity financing which was 39% of the total venture capital invested this reporting period. The largest private venture financing in California this period was invested into Vernier Networks. Vernier Networks raised $21 million and is a Mountain View based provider of security products for wired and wireless networks to businesses throughout the country.

The earlier mentioned biotechnology sector raised 21% of the venture capital this period. Seven biotechnology companies raised $78 million in venture financing. The largest private venture financing in the biotechnology sector this period went into Marinus Pharmaceuticals. Marinus Pharmaceuticals raised $28.14 million and is a Bradford, Connecticut based developer of next-generation pharmaceuticals for the treatment of infantile spasms and bipolar disorder.

Companies raising their Series A financing round led this week’s venture capital activity. These financings represented 34% of the total venture capital deployed this period. The largest private venture financing was placed into the aforementioned Marinus Pharmaceuticals.

The three largest venture deals this period are as follows:

The following twelve companies and other unnamed investors funded the above mentioned top three venture capital investments for $79.14 million:

A total of 65 equity financings of private and public companies occurred during this reporting period. Each of the 65 equity financings are profiled in a weekly report which include venture financings, private placements, secondary offerings, PIPE’s, and IPO’s.

About CapitalHunter.com

CapitalHunter.com is a web-based financial information company that identifies, preserves and electronically disseminates worldwide data on venture capital and other equity financings. Customers utilize the CapitalHunter.com searchable database to research newly and historic financings and to identify active investors.

Please visit www.capitalhunter.com and get immediate access. New subscribers can request a free investor analysis.

To be REMOVED from this free service, CLICK HERE