U.S. venture capital firm investments in the first quarter were up 1% to $12.1 billion from $12 billion in the fourth quarter but down 12% from $13.7 billion in the first quarter of 2015, said the MoneyTree Report by National Venture Capital Association and PricewaterhouseCoopers based on Thomson Reuters data.
The number of deals in the first quarter was down 5% to 969 from 1,021 in the fourth quarter and down 11% from 1,085 in the first quarter of 2015.
Early-stage companies attracted more capital — $4.2 billion — in the first quarter than seed stage, expansion state or later-stage companies. However, capital spent to invest in early-stage companies was down 18% from $5.1 billion in the fourth quarter but up 14% from $3.7 billion in the first quarter of 2015.
Car sharing company Lyft Inc. — a later stage company — was the largest deal in the first quarter, attracting $1 billion from venture capital firms including Rakuten Ventures, Kingdom Holding Co. and Alibaba Capital Partners. The second-largest deal in the quarter was $793.5 million in early stage technology company Magic Leap Inc. by venture capital and other money managers, including Fidelity Investments, J.P. Morgan Asset Management, Morgan Stanley Private Equity, Wellington Management and Qualcomm Ventures.
