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Minnesota companies pulled in a record $237.5 million in venture capital in the first quarter of 2000, driven by an unusually large numb& of deals worth $15 million or more.
The amount of venture funding, according to the latest PricewaterhouseCoopers survey, was greater than any quarter since the firm began tracking capital investments in 1995. The figure was 40 percent higher than venture capital financing in the previous quarter, and nearly five times that of the firstquarter numbers last year.
"It sounds almost mundane; another record quarter," said Ralph Weinberger, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Minneapolis. "But it's definitely a big deal."
The number of Minnesota companies landing venture investments was 29 - only four more than the previous quarter, evidence of the higher average size of deals this time around.
The third and fourth quarters of last year were each dominated by one large investment in a telecommunications company$42 million for Minneapolis-based Advanced Telecommunications Inc. (now Eschelon) and $50 million for Plymouthbased Onvoy, respectively. But the size of the remaining deals was far smaller.
This quarter had a breakout deal of its own - $47 million for the Web-based surplus marketplace ZoneTrader.com - but it also had a strong supporting cast. Five companies landed more than $20 million in investments, and 10 received more than $ 10...