Posted on: January 03, 2013
The IPO market? Yawn. (Thanks, Facebook.) Cleantech? Yikes! 2012 didn’t exactly play out like the pundits predicted, but there are a few sectors that VCs craved, just like always. Today, we’re going to break down Thomson Reuters’ data covering where VCs piled in the most during last year.
1. Software
2. Industrial/Energy
3. Biotechnology
4. Media & Entertainment
5. IT Services
Software deals took the cake, and by a mile. There were nearly 2,000 software investments made by a whopping 1,276 investors, totaling more than $5.78 billion—this last figure, however, wasn’t the most VCs spent in 2012…
Industrial/energy deals, like big bets some VCs made to preserve cleantech plays, tallied the second most number of deals at 848, and by far they represented the most money spent, at $10.38 billion.
Is biotech back? It looks so—but it isn’t for big spenders. There were 789 deals made by more than 650 investors, but they collectively put to use less than $1 billion.
The big spenders weren’t in media and entertainment either—spending the least of our top five categories by deals done—only $864 million was spent last year. However, with 745 deals done by 669 firms, VCs are clearly looking to spaces like gaming for more big hits.
There were 612 IT services deals last year—not a shocker for VCs. That makes the space the one with the fifth most deals done, and totaling more than $1.3 billion. Other noteworthy figures come from the networking/equipment sector, where a whopping $4.25 billion was spent on a mere 91 investments, and retailing/distribution, where another $4 billion was invested.
Data sets complete as of Dec. 15.
Image Credit: Shutterstock.com
