Lots of Schmoozing, Very Little Doing

How cold has the venture capital industry gotten? One barometer is the lack of activity seen at last week’s Venture 2003 conference.

Aurora Funds’ seed financing for Metabolon Pharmaceuticals of Research Triangle Park was the only new deal disclosed during and after the conference. At the Venture 2002 conference, two funding deals totaling more than $13 million were announced. One was for Zoom Culture, which has since gone out of business, and the other was for Morrisville-based Cropsolution.

The Metabolon deal brings the North Carolina total for the year to just over $100 million in 16 deals. By the end of April a year ago, the state had seen 19 deals for the same amount … although the two Venture 2002 deals came during the first days of May.

Here is LTW’s exclusive list of North Carolina venture deals, ranked according to the size of the investment:

Company; Sector; Amount (Round)

1. TransTech Pharma, High Point; Pharmaceutical; $24 million (2nd)

Investors: MacAndrews & Forbes (lead), Cephaton and Novo Nordisk A/S

2. Targacept, Winston-Salem; Biotech; $14 million (2nd)

Investors: Nomura International Healthcare Private Equity Group (lead), Bison Capital, Cogene Biotech Ventures, JAFCO, Oxford Bioscience Partners and Rock Castle Ventures

3. Arsenal Digital Solutions, Cary; IT services; $10.5 million (4th)

Investors: Covestco, Southeast Interactive Technology Funds and Southern Cross Capital

4. Ephinay, Charlotte; IT services; $10 million (1st)

Investors: Chrys Capital

5. StemCo Biomedical, Durham; Biotech; $9.8 million (2nd)

Investors: Aurora Funds (co-lead), Intersouth Partners (co-lead), BD Ventures, Tall Oaks Capital and Trelys Venture Partners

6. OrthoNeuro, Charlotte; Medical; $8.5 million (NA)

Investors: New Enterprise Associates

7. Venetica, Charlotte; Software; $7 million (1st)

Investors: Charles River Ventures and General Catalyst Partners

8. Oculan, Raleigh; Networking; $5 million (4th)

Investors: Soros Equity Partners