Processing .....please wait.. 
The article has been forwarded.... 
VC investment increases to $4.73 Billion
Bangalore: With growing interest in startups that specialize in clean energy, venture capital (VC) investment has increased to $4.73 billion in the first quarter from a year earlier. According to the reports from the National Venture Capital Association and PricewaterhouseCoopers, firms invested in 681 deals during the quarter, reports Tim Mullaney of Bloomberg.
Tracy Lefteroff, Global Managing Partner for Pricewaterhouse's venture capital practice, said that the startups may raise more than $20 billion this year. "You have a fairly healthy amount of money available," Lefteroff told Bloomberg. "We're back to levels from before the 1997-2000 bubble, which is when the industry's returns were the best."
Half of the quarter's top 10 deals went to companies focused on clean energy, the association said. The biggest was $115.3 million for Fisker Automotive, an Irvine, California-based electric-car maker. Also, BridgeLux, which makes lighting systems that use less electricity than fluorescent or incandescent bulbs, raised $60 million. Overall, clean technology firms raised $773 million, an 87 percent increase from the fourth quarter.
However, the decline is noticed in the software and biotechnology sectors, the association said. The number of software deals was the lowest in any quarter since 1995, the year Netscape Communications went public. Biotechnology investments slid 24 percent to $825 million from the fourth quarter. The slump may be short-lived, said Chris Christoffersen, a partner at Morgenthaler Ventures in Boulder, Colorado.
But, the rapid growth of mobile Internet companies and social networking will spur a pickup in information technology deals later this year, said Bill Wiberg, a partner at Advanced Technology Ventures in Waltham, Massachusetts. "The pace of investing is picking up, and it may not be fully reflected in the first-quarter data," Wiberg said on a conference call. "Mobile Internet usage will surpass personal- computer Internet usage, and that will present many opportunities."
