Venture capital activity down in 3rd quarter, up from 2013 — reports

Venture capital firms invested $9.9 billion in 1,023 deals in the third quarter of 2014, down 9% in number of deals and down 27% in dollars from $13.5 billion invested in 1,129 deals in the second quarter, said the MoneyTree Report from PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association based on data provided by Thomson Reuters.

Even with the quarterly drop, venture capital firms invested more capital in the first three quarters of this year, $33.2 billion, than they had in all of 2013 when they invested $29.8 billion.

Indeed, venture capital firms spent more capital in the third quarter than the $8 billion they spent in the third quarter of last year, but the number of deals is down from the 1,065 transactions in the third quarter of 2013.

Santa Clara, Calif.-based software company DataStax Inc. was the largest venture capital deal in the quarter with $106 million from about nine venture capital firms, including Comcast Ventures; Crosslink Capital; Draper Fisher Jurvetson; and Kleiner, Perkins, Caulfield & Byers.

Dow Jones Venture Source data shows that venture capital firms invested $11 billion in 899 U.S.-based companies in the third quarter, down 24% in capital and down 7% in number of transactions from the prior quarter.

Business and financial services received the most money, getting 27% of the total investment in the quarter, followed by health-care companies, which took in 25% of the total capital invested.