A challenge with data is that the collection methods are critical when you are comparing data from different sources. Over at lifescivc.com, Bruce Booth of Atlas Venture recently referenced 2012 year end numbers for biotech venture capital investment from BioCentury: $5.5 Billion was invested in 2012, up from 2008-2011. Over the last couple of years, I’ve been looking at the NVCA/PWC figures. One of the nice features about that data is that it is freely available. The biotech 2012 year end number from PWC was $4.1B. I don’t have a neat and tidy takeaway from the NVCA/PWC numbers and trends. Rather, it leads me to questions, including whether we will we see an impact on dollars:deals ratio as the lean/virtual/backyard companies progress.
Over on Twitter, conversation broke out today after Bijan Salehizadeh shared a graph via this tweet
2012 in VC – both medtech and biotech $s into 1st round companies as % of total $s in sector at all time low pic.twitter.com/H8rSBCNl
You can watch the discussion over on Appeering. One of the messages: reinforcement that definitions are critical in comparing data sets.
PS Just for fun, here is the biotech VC investment data by quarter.
Update 27 January 2013:
Here is the definition of Financing Sequence from the PWC MoneyTree Report website:
The type of financing as it is used in the MoneyTree™ Report refers to the number of tranches a company has received. The number designation (1, 2, 3, etc.) does not refer to the round of financing. Rounds are usually designated alphabetically, e.g. Series A, Series B, and so on. The MoneyTree™ Report does not track rounds.
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