We’ve officially hit the end of the first quarter, and with that comes data about venture capital investments. The first out is PitchBook, which notes that $15.4 billion was invested in 1,348 deals during the quarter.
That’s up from about $12 billion in 1,856 deals for the same period last year.
While the first quarter haul is a big one, it does not compare to the dot-com boom days. According to the MoneyTree Survey, more than $22 billion was invested in each quarter during 2000.
Nonetheless, it’s still a relatively good time on the fundraising front, sparked in part by a new appetite for IPOs. Facebook’s aggressive M&A expansion, picking up WhatsApp and Oculus in recent weeks, isn’t hurting either.
Even so, the number of exits and dollars associated with those exits dropped during the first quarter when compared to the fourth quarter, though they were up when compared to the first quarter of last year.
However, the number of IPOs during the first quarter — 72 — was a quarterly high not seen since 2000, reports Fortune.
We’ll have more on the venture capital front as new reports are released from CB Insights, MoneyTree and others. Stay tuned.
