Canadian Venture Capital 1st Quarter 2005 Update

"TORONTO, ON--Investments by Canada's venture capital firms were down in Q1 2005 relative to recent quarters while capital raised by these funds, from retail and institutional investors, increased compared to earlier periods, according to Canada's Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (CVCA) and its statistics gathering partner, Thomson Macdonald (formerly Macdonald and Associates).Q1 2005 venture capital investments were $326 million compared to $458 million in Q4 2004 and $417 million in Q1 2004."I don't read too much into one quarter's investment levels," says Robin Louis, president of the CVCA. "There tends to be considerable quarterly fluctuation in investing activity in our industry as the numbers can be significantly affected by one or two jumbo deals."Amounts raised by venture capital funds increased in Q1 2005 with new capital commitments of $1 billion, up from $589 million in Q1 2004.The CVCA says the Q1 2005 data also indicate that early-stage investments continue to occupy a large proportion of venture capital investing activity overall. For the past several years, early-stage investments have hovered at approximately the 50 per cent level, while in Q1 2005 they increased to over 65 per cent."

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