We had a feeling that the fourth quarter was going to be a big one for venture capital investing in Washington state as large rounds of cash rolled into companies such as Zulily, Meteor Entertainment, Qumulo and Smartsheet.

And now the numbers are in — and yes our feelings were verified. Washington state ranked fourth in venture capital investments during the fourth quarter as 34 companies raised $279 million — a significant uptick over the third quarter totals when 24 companies raised $132 million, according to a report out today from CB Insights.

Of course, more than a quarter of the cash flowed to one company — the $85 million blockbuster round for Seattle daily deal site Zulily. It was the biggest Internet deal of the quarter, according to CB Insights.

And speaking of Internet deals, that’s where VCs appear to be placing their bets in the Seattle region, with 58 percent of dollars flowing to Internet-oriented companies. That was followed by computer hardware/services (17 percent) and health care (12 percent).

Meanwhile, here’s a look at the breakdown of investments by stage. The interesting thing here is the surge in series D financing, and that the so-called series A “crunch” appears to be real in Washington state at least. (Nationally, series A financing rounds actually increased to 22 percent, up from 20 percent in the third quarter).

Nationally, funding levels fell 7.5 percent during 2012, but the number of deals, coming in at 3,267, was a post-recession high. More on the national numbers here.

California remains the king of venture capital activity, followed by Massachusetts and New York. Here’s a look at the top 25 states in terms of venture capital investing during the fourth quarter.

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