Week 03/13/2006 through 03/19/2006

Prepared by Capital Hunter analysts

This period’s investment activity was one of the strongest in years, as a whopping $564 million was placed in 42 companies, the largest amount allotted in a single week since mid-May, when Vonage received a $200 million round of financing. Even more noteworthy is the fact that first round financings comprised a significant chunk of the week’s investment, though admittedly there were a few companies that received sums atypical for an average startup company, which included online advertising provider AdKnowledge and oil services provider Forrest Drilling. The largest investment of the week was placed in Optasite, a Westborough-based owner and operator of wireless communication towers. Optasite received $60 million in Series C financing from a bevy of investors that included Babson Capital Management, Centennial Ventures, General Electric, Key Venture Partners, Columbia Capital Partners, Village Ventures and Highland Capital Partners. Also noteworthy is the fact that sector funding remained evenly spread out, as five different industries received at least 10% of the week’s funding, including software, biotechnology, business services, telecommunications and medical devices, which received the biggest share of the pie with 19% of the week’s funding.

IPO activity remained slow this week, as only two companies listed, down from three a week ago. The two companies are as follows:

Acquicor Technology AMEX:AQR-U priced at $150 million and is a blank check company formed to acquire the assets of a domestic or foreign technology company.

Transdigm Group NYSE:TDG priced at $230 million and is a provider of engineered components for commercial and military aircraft.

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CapitalHunter.com was able to verify that $564 million of venture capital was invested in 42 U.S.-based companies during the past week. The average deal size was approximately 13.43 million. The amount of venture capital invested this period increased by 25% compared to last periods $453 million.

California was the largest recipient of venture capital funding this week. Twenty-two California companies raised $260.2 million in new equity financing, which accounted for 47% of the total venture capital invested this reporting period. The largest private venture financing in California was placed into Adknowledge. AdKnowledge raised $48 million in Series A financing and is a provider of automated end-to-end online advertising management services.

The medical device sector raised the most venture capital this reporting period, with five companies raising $104.1 million in venture financing, which accounted for 19% of the venture capital this period. The largest private venture financing in the medical device sector this period was placed into TransMedics. TransMedics received $29.75 million in Series C funding and is a provider of portable medical products for the preservation and transportation of donated organs.

Start-ups raising their Series A round of financing represented the largest share of the funding pie, as 34% of all money invested this period went into such companies. The largest such financing was placed into the aforementioned AdKnowledge .

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 $148 million:

A total of 100 equity financings of private and public companies occurred during this reporting period. Each of the 100 equity financings are profiled in a weekly (in this case biweekly) report which include venture financings, private placements, secondary offerings, PIPE’s, and IPO’s.

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