Are four deals worth $35 million that closed last week signs that venture capital deals in the Carolinas and Georgia may be heating up after a slow start?
Although there wasn’t a big deal such as NewSouth’s $63.5 million, the $35 million pushed the three-state total to $185 million.
As of March 16 in 2002 — which, nationally, proved to be the slowest year since 1997 — 41 deals worth some $300 million were closed in the Carolinas and Georgia. The three-state area closed on nearly $1 billion for all of 2002.
Closing last week were Targacept ($14 million), Stemco ($9.8 million) and Oculan ($5 million) in North Carolina and Brickstream ($6.2 million) in Atlanta.
(If LTW has missed a deal, please notify Managing Editor Rick Smith via e-mail, rsmith8@nc.rr.com ).
Here is LTW’s exclusive list, which will be updated and published each Monday, for the three-state area:
Investment size; company; focus; location; investors
1. $63.5 million; New South Communications; telecommunications; Greenville, SC; Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts; Wachovia Partners; Quadrangle Group; Vaxa Corporate Partners; M/C Ventures.
2. $24.5 million; TransTech Pharma; High Point, NC; pharmaceutical; MacAndrews & Fowles, Novo Nordisk A/S and Caphalon
3. $15.5 million; Prenova; services; Atlanta; Frontenac, Austin Ventures, River Cities Capital.
4. $14 million; Targacept; biotech; Nomura International, Oxford Bioscience Partners, JAFCO, Cogene Biotech Ventures, Bison Capital, Rock Castle Ventures; 2nd
5. $11 million; nuBridges; software; Atlanta; C&B Capital, GMT Capital, Noro-Moseley, hf Flagship Investments, Tycho and Marie Hawle Foundation plus 24 individuals.
6. $9.8 million; Stemco; biotech; Aurora Funds, Intersouth Partners, Becton Dickinson Ventures, Trelys Venture Partners, Tall Oaks Capital.
7. $8.5 million; OrthoNeuro; Charlotte; specialty hospital; New Enterprise Associates.
8. $7 million; Venetica; software; Charlotte; Charles River Ventures, General Catalyst Partners; 1st
9. $6.2 million; Brickstream Corporation; software; Columbia Capital and Mohr Davidow Ventures; 1st
10. $5 million; Lancope; security; Atlanta; HIG Ventures, GMG Capital Partners; 2nd
10. $5 million; Oculan; networking; Soros Equity Partners.
12. $3.3 million; Q1 Labs; Atlanta; software; Business Development Bank of Canada, New Brunswick Investment Management Corp.; 1st
13. $3 million; Flexlight; Atlanta; optics/networking; Coral Ventures, Concord Ventures; 2nd
14. $2.1 million; Qcept; Atlanta; manufacturing; Pittco Capital Partners, Atlanta Technology Ventures, Bergman & Associates.
15. $2 million; Relativity; Cary, NC; software; Wakefield Group, Noro-Moseley
16. $1.6 million; RSS Solutions; Greenville, NC; software; Edgestone Capital Partners.
17. $1.5 million; LiveWire Logic; Morrisville, NC; software and services; Research Triangle Ventures, Gray Ventures
18. $1.3 million; Tranzyme; RTP; biotech; Research Triangle Ventures, Paradigm Venture Partners, Green & Associates. Pacific Rim Ventures
