New Delhi: IT and IT enabled services (IT & ITES) sector has emerged as the preferred focus of Venture Capital investments in the country in the first three months of this year, attracting over two-third of the total deals worth $144 million, says a latest report by research firm Venture Intelligence Service.

The industry garnered $87 million via 14 deals during this period, says the report.

During the quarter, Venture Capital firms have invested $144 million through 21 deals, a sharp decline compared to the corresponding period previous year, which had recorded 28 deals worth $173 million.

The maximum VC investment was attracted by online travel portal Cleartrip.com of about $18.5 million from DAG Ventures.

Further, Deeya Energy attracted ($15 million) investment from New Enterprise Association, Soham Renewable Energy ($15 million) from D E Shaw and Ikya Human Capital ($8 million) from India Equity Partners.

However, there has been a significant growth in terms of the deal size of the investments.

"Online Services companies dominated the quarter accounting for a 75 per cent share of the invested capital," Venture Intelligence CEO Arun Natarajan said.

"About 10 out of 21 deals during the quarter came within the range of $5-10 million," Natarajan said. The same stood at six out of 28 deals within the range of $2-5 million.