New VC report shows third straight decline for NC funding, but …

From bullish to bearish in just a few months for North Carolina venture deals? Could be. The second of three major venture capital funding reports is out, and it too reports that deals have dried up substantially so far this year.

However, there is a caveat.

Dow Jones VentureSource data released Thursday shows a sharp decline in deals done and in funding from the previous three quarters. (WRAL TechWire reported Wednesday on similar down data for the state from CB Insights; still to come is the MoneyTree report from PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association.)

First quarter 2016 deals in N.C.: 12
Funding: $102.85 million

Each figure is down from the last three quarters, including a whopping $355 million in the second quarter of 2015 and 15 deals/$167 million for the last quarter of the year.

But, before getting bearish yourself, here’s the caveat:

VCs like to say that tracking the venture ecosystem quarter-by-quarter is NOT a reliable means of measuring what’s really happening. They recommend looking at year-over-year.

If one does that, then the new figures aren’t as bad.

VentureSource reported just $89 million in Q1 2015 spread across 17 deals.

The state went on to land $782 million in venture investment – the best annual performance since the “dot com” boom and higher than was reported by MoneyTree. (As we have noted before, each report has its own criteria and sources for VC deals so the statistics across the three almost never coincide.)

North Carolina is not alone is seeing less money. VentureSource reported that funding fell to $13.9 billion from $18.6 billion in the fourth quarter. The 1Q performance was the lowest among the six most recent quarters.

Dealfow tumbled, too, down 6p ercent to 684.

“We’re at the end of the era of big fundraisings,” Jeff Grabow of Ernst & Young told PE Hub about the latest funding report from Dow Jones VentureSource. “I think we’re in the era of execution.”

Inside the NC deals

VentureSource data includes six life science/biotech deals followed by two each in business and financial services as well as consumer services. There also was one ag/forestry deal and one software investment.

Interestingly, 27 institutional investors were identified as being involved in the the investments, including New Enterprise Associates, Canaan Partners and Sierra Ventures.

Local investors included Hatteras Venture Partners, Pappas Ventures and Wakefield Partners.

Highlighted deals: