Net-Related Companies Get Lion's Share of Venture-Backed Investments In 2Q

EDP Weekly's IT Monitor, August 9, 1999

Internet-related companies received investments of $3.81 billion, over half of the 661 venture capital transactions in the second quarter (56 percent of total 2Q investment dollars).The largest category within Internet investments, business services companies, secured $1.28 billion and over one-third of all venture capital transactions in 2Q (34 percent of total investment dollars).

The $2.18 billion invested in business services Internet companies during the first half of 1999 exceed the total invested in this category for all of 1998. The greatest increase in dollars invested was in Internet- centric software and database companies, with the total raised up from $543 million in first quarter 1999 to $935 million in the second quarter (a 72 percent increase). "The Internet industry continues to mature as it has moved in a progression from infrastructure and content, to software and search engines, to e-commerce and now business services.Internet companies now have expanded into the business of the Internet:marketing, advertising, financial transactions and other business-to-business services," says Dave Witherow, CEO of VentureOne, a leading provider of information and analysis on the venture capital industry.