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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Local Firms Get Venture Funding

Two local biomedical companies helped drive the biggest quarter for investments since the first quarter of 2002, a report on venture capital investments revealed. The dollar value of investments rose to $6.3 billion in the second quarter of 2006, fueled largely by biotech and medical devices deals, along with funding in the industrial and energy company and networking and equipment sectors, according to The MoneyTree Report released by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association based on data from Thomson Financial. The second quarter funding represents a 2 percent increase over the prior quarter based on dollar amounts and a 5 percent increase over the prior quarter based on the number of deals, the report noted. First-time financing also reached a five-year high. Among the companies receiving funding in the quarter were Woodland Hills-based Aestherx, a medical product research and development company that received $20 million; and Camarillo-based Lucix Corp., a maker of dielectric resonator oscillators that received $3.7 million in funding. The biotech sector in all saw fundings increase 10 percent to $1.8 billion, representing 185 deals for the quarter.

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