Week 04/24/2006 through 04/30/2006

Prepared by Capital Hunter analysts

Venture capital activity slipped this period, as only $348 million was invested, the smallest weekly investment since late March and an 18 percent drop over the $422 million raised last week. Despite the drop in total numbers, software investment had a strong showing, with close to $187 million invested across twenty companies, accounting for over half of the total funding this week. The $187 million invested in software was the largest amount since the week of February 7-February 13 of 2005, when $188 million was invested in fourteen companies led by Boulder-based antispyware company Webroot Software, which raised a whopping $108 million from the Mayfield Fund, Accel Partners and Technology Crossover Ventures. Other industries, with the exception of medical devices and to a lesser degree biotechnology, received a marginal amount of funding this week, halting a recent trend toward greater industrial investment diversity between the major sectors.

IPO activity surged this week, as six companies began public trading this week. These companies are:

Shanghai Century Acquisition AMEX:SHA-U priced at $100 million and is a blank check company looking to purchase a company with primary locations located in China.

Harbor Acquisition Corporation AMEX:HAC-U priced at $60 million and is another blank check company, this one looking to acquire a middle market business operating in the consumer or industrial sector.

Corel NASDAQ:CREL priced at $104 million and is a provider of publishing, graphics and digital imaging software.

RAM Holdings NASDAQ:RAMR priced at $122.3 million and is a provider of financial guaranty insurance.

American Mold Guard NASDAQ:AMGIU priced at $17.55 million and is a provider of mold prevention services to the residential home building industry.

CPI International NASDAQ:CPII priced at $127.1 million and is a provider of microwave and radio frequency products for communications, defense, medical and other related engineering applications.

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CapitalHunter.com was able to verify that $348 million of venture capital was invested in 36 U.S.-based companies during the past week. The average deal size was approximately 9.67 million. The amount of venture capital invested this period decreased by 18% compared to last periods $422 million.

California was once again the largest recipient of venture capital funding this week. Fourteen California companies raised $126 million in new equity financing, which accounted for 36% of the total venture capital invested this reporting period. The largest private venture financing in California was placed into PhotoThera. PhotoThera raised $30.5 million in Series C financing and is a provider of medical technology used to alleviate pain associated with carpal tunnel syndrome.

The previously mentioned software sector raised the most venture capital this reporting period, with twenty companies raising $186.9 million in funding, which accounted for 53% of the venture capital this period. The largest financing in the software sector was Motricity. Motricity raised $40 million in late stage funding and is a provider of mobile marketplace management software solutions.

Start-ups raising their Series A rounds of financing represented the largest share of the funding pie, as 33% of all money invested this period went into such companies. The largest such financing was placed into firstRain. firstRain raised $18.69 million and is a provider of market intelligence software.

The three largest venture deals this period are as follows:

The following eleven companies and other unnamed investors funded the above mentioned top three venture capital investments for $92 million:

A total of 79 equity financings of private and public companies occurred during this reporting period. Each of the 79 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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