Dashboard: New year starts slow for venture fundraising

Fundraising (value down 51%)

U.S.-based venture firms raised $1.11 billion in January, a 51 percent drop from the $2.25 billion year-end surge in December, according to Thomson Reuters data. DBL Investors led the charge by raising $356.4 million in commitments to meet its target and close DBL Partners III LP. Coming in second for the month was The Raine Group LLC raised the second most of any firm, raising $261.3 million and wrapping up its second balanced-stage fund more than $100 million over its $750 million target.

Deals (value falls 50%)

Deal activity took a hit in the opening month of 2015. A total of 251 U.S.-based companies raised $3.9 billion in January, down from $7.8 billion raised by 545 companies in December. The prominent deal of the month was Space Exploration Technologies Corp, closing on $1 billion in equity from DFJ, Fidelity Investments and The Founders Fund.

M&A (value down 52%)

A total of 24 venture-backed, U.S.-based companies were acquired in December, including eight with disclosed values, totaling $1.2 billion. That is a 52 percent decline from December’s total of $2.5 billion. Some of the marquee deals from the past month include Pneumrx Inc being acquired by BTG PLC for $475 million and Salveo Specialty Pharmacy Inc, which sold to Catamaran Corp for $260 million.

IPO (proceeds down 63%)

A total of eight U.S.-based, VC-backed companies went public on the NYSE and Nasdaq in January, just one short of the total that was seen in December. What was not equal, however, was the overall value of the IPOs as the proceeds decreased about 63 percent from nearly $2.1 billion down to $759 million. The largest of the January offerings was Box Inc, a provider of online file sharing and cloud services, whose IPO sold for $175 million.

Based on Thomson Reuters data and original research, as compiled by Paul Centopani for VCJ.

Data is continuously updated and is therefore subject to change. Date is for U.S.-based companies and venture firms.

Photo illustrations by Janet Yuen.