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Despite the Summer, VCs Kept On Funding
Despite the seasonal summer slowdown, the venture capital community maintained its furious investing pace in the third quarter, investing $7.1 billion, down just slightly from $7.2 billion in the second quarter. Here are some of the highlights from the data released by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association (and based on data provided by Thomson Financial). (Press Release in PDF format.)
Internet-specific companies took in $1.1 billion via 195 deals in the third quarter, a 17-percent rise, on a dollar basis, over the second quarter, when $903 million went into 160 deals.
Media and entertainment saw $509 million go into 96 deals, an increase in terms of both deals and dollars from the second quarter, when $464 million went into 77 deals.
Seed and early-stage investing dollars in the third quarter fell 15 percent, to $1.4 billion in 305 deals from $1.7 billion in 395 deals in the prior quarter.
U.S.-based venture capitalists invested $206 million in 31 deals in China, down 52 percent from the second quarter, when $429 million was invested in 38 deals. Also in the quarter, U.S. venture capitalists invested $248 million in 22 deals in India vs. $119 million invested in 18 companies during the second quarter.
Skype Founders Invest in Frenzoo
Ambient Sound Investments, a company established by the four co-founding engineers of Skype, have invested in the Hong Kong based 3D social networking company Frenzoo as part of a Series A round of investment aimed at expanding the service through out Asia.
ASI owners include Priit Kasesalu and Jaan Tallinn, Senior Developers at Skype, Ahti Heinla, Chief Architect at Skype and Toivo Annu, a former Skype Head of Engineering.
Frenzoo enables users to connect with friends by becoming “budding fashionistas”. Users can express themselves by personalizing 3D characters, and can mix-and-match a variety of branded clothes, footwear, accessories, furniture and lifestyle items.
Frenzoo utilizes a “RealFashion 3D Engine” that simulates a user’s character, clothing and living environments in true 3D, leveraging recent advances in graphics hardware. The Frenzoo application is a downloadable program offering native social network browsing and instant messaging.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Frenzoo is currently in closed beta with a launch date scheduled for the second half of 2007.
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