Week 11/27/2006 through 12/03/2006

Prepared by Capital Hunter analysts:

Venture capital investment remained fairly steady this period, with 32 companies receiving in excess of $446 million, most of which was placed into companies within the life sciences sectors. Unlike last period, where investment was evenly distributed across many different sectors, venture capital was concentrated primarily in biotechnology companies. The sector received $262.2 million, or 58%, of all venture capital, the highest percentage for a single sector since we began our newsletter back in 2003. The largest of the biotech financings was Kalypsys, a San Diego company currently developing drugs focusing on cancer, inflammation and metabolic diseases, which raised $100 million in Series C funding from Tavistock Life Sciences, Sprout Group, CMEA Ventures and the KT Venture Group. Kalypsys plans to use the proceeds to further its preclinical and clinical drug programs. Concert Pharmaceuticals, another biotech company that received an outsized investment, took in $48 million in Series B funding from a consortium of investors that included Flagship Ventures, Brookside Capital Partners, New Leaf Venture Partners, Three Arch Partners, TVM Capital, Skyline Ventures, Greylock Partners and QVT Fund LP. Concert plans to use the funds to continue development of their pipeline of drug candidates and to further its clinical programs. Other life sciences companies, including Magellan Biosciences, Elixir Pharmaceuticals, Cara Therapeutics, Alimera Sciences and Quinnova Pharmaceuticals, each raised in excess of $10 million. Other sectors, including software and online media, received only minor amounts of capital, while companies in the semiconductor, business services and IT services industries did not receive any investment at all. While biotech and life sciences investment will continue to do well going forward, it certainly will not make up such a large percentage in the coming months. We expect software and web-based applications will continue to outperform other sectors outside of the life sciences with other marginal sectors going in and out of favor for the next few months.

The IPO market finally had a small hiccup this period after the past five weeks of strong growth. Only three companies managed to list, including two companies that priced under $50 million. The largest of the three, Central North Airport Group (aka Grupo Aeroportuario del Centro Norte), an operator of Mexican airports, priced at $18 a share and is already up to $22 a share. For more information of these companies I encourage you to use the links below, which will take you to Yahoo! Finance where you can find a lot of information about the company that interests you. Without further ado, here are the public markets three newest companies:

Wireless Ronin Technologies NASDAQ:RNIN priced at $18 million and is a provider of signage solutions for the retail and service markets.

Grupo Aeroportuario del Centro Norte NASDAQ:OMAB priced at $187.9 million and is an operator of thirteen airports in the northern and central regions of Mexico.

Netlist NASDAQ:NLST priced at $43.75 million and is a provider of high performance memory chips and subsystems.

Please come visit our 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 $446 million of venture capital was invested in 32 U.S.-based companies during the past week. The average deal size was approximately 13.94 million. The amount of venture capital invested this period decreased by 41% compared the last two period’s $756 million.

California was the largest recipient of venture capital funding this week, though Massachusetts garnered a significant chunk as well. Eleven California companies raised $167.8 million in new equity financing, which accounted for 38% of the total venture capital invested this reporting period. The largest venture investment in California was placed into the earlier mentioned Kalypsys.

The biotechnology sector dominated this reporting period, with nine companies raising $262.2 million in venture financing. Biotech companies accounted for approximately 58% of the venture capital this period. The largest venture investment in the biotechnology sector was placed into the earlier mentioned Kalypsys .

Start-ups raising their second stages of funding represented the largest share of the funding pie, as 42% of all money invested this period went into such companies. The largest Series B funding was also placed into Kalypsys.

The three largest venture deals this period are as follows:

The following eighteen companies and other unnamed investors funded the above mentioned top three venture capital investments for $179.5 million:

A total of 56 equity financings of private and public companies occurred during this reporting period. Each of the 56 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.

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