Week in Review: CVCs Add to Investments and Big Data Gains the Spotlight
Posted by | February 24, 2012
The latest report from MoneyTree and the National Venture Capital Association shows that corporate venture capitalists (CVCs) increased investments over the past three years. In 2011, CVCs participated in 15 percent of all venture capital investment deals, investing $2.3 billion, up from $2 billion in 2010. The number of deals rose to 551 from 481, a 15 percent increase. Most investments were in the industrial/energy sector and biotechnology.
In addition to those sectors, venture capitalists sought out big data startups in 2011. Venture firms invested $2.47 billion last year in database management, data processing, and other big data fields, compared to $1.53 billion in 2010 and $1.1 billion in 2009. Investors are attracted to these startups’ ability to collect and analyze vast amounts of data on retail, healthcare, and financial markets, among others. This information can be used to learn more about consumer spending habits, treat patients more effectively, and assess risk on investments, allowing for faster, better, and more efficient decision-making.
Our new partner company, Lumesis, is capitalizing on the potential of big data for the fixed income marketplace. This week, we announced that we led a $2.5M Series A financing for Lumesis, which provides robust visualization and analytical tools and time-sensitive notifications through its product DIVER, an interactive, web-based, fixed income research tool that offers more than 130 data sets from more than 30 distinct sources.
While Lumesis gained the spotlight this week, other partner companies also made headlines:
- Hoopla Software was included as part of Technically Philly’s Startup Roundup, which highlighted its recent financing from Safeguard and its plans to hire new employees.
- AdAge highlighted MediaMath’s partnership program, which aims to simplify digital media buying by integrating various ad technology providers into its platform.
- Information Week cited Medivo as an example of growth in healthcare IT investments, which increased 22 percent YoY in 2011. Medivo joins a number of prominent businesses to help mentor Blueprint Health’s inaugural class of startups, which recently caught TechCrunch’s attention.
- Mobihealth News made note of NovaSom’s obstructive sleep apnea test kit that wirelessly collects and transfers sleep data to a cloud-based platform so that doctors can analyze and better diagnose patients. NovaSom also recently announced that its home testing services for sleep apnea diagnosis is now available to patients on the UnitedHealthcare plan.
- PixelOptics’ lenses have made their way to a Tulsa, Okla. eyewear shop, where News on 6 discovered them.
- Stanford Business Magazine Online told the story of how Putney CEO Jean Hoffman’s sick cat revealed to her the lack of affordable generic pet medicine. The Bangor Daily News highlights Putney’s growth to fill this market and explains the rewards of generics for pets and their owners.
- Ben Kartzman, CEO of Spongecell, spoke with iMedia Connection about the potential for online display advertising and the best and worst display ads he’s seen.
- Melissa Massello and Amy Chase of Swap.com visited Morning Extra on FoxCT to explain how their users go online to swap shoes, cameras, jewelry, and more.
- ThingWorx announced this week that it is partnering with the Pennsylvania Smart Infrastructure Incubator. Thingworx joins Carnegie Mellon, IBM, and other businesses and institutions to make Pennsylvania a leader in connected world technology. ThingWorx CEO Russ Fadel recently spoke to TMC CEO Rich Tehrani in M2M Evolution about the impact of the Internet of Things.
To read more of our Week in Review series, please use the following feed: www.safeguard.com/WeekInReview. Enjoy your weekend!
