Venture Capitalists Finding Opportunities in “Unexpected” Pockets

NEW YORK, March 11 /PRNewswire/ — While Silicon Valley and New England
remain the country’s leading regions for venture capital investment, they
are not the fastest growing, according to The MoneyTree Report by
PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA)
based on data by Thomson Financial. In the last ten years, smaller pockets
in non-traditional venture capital regions have enjoyed impressive growth
in the number of companies funded each year. Included in this ranking are
areas such as New Mexico and Pittsburgh, which have not had a strong
venture capital presence in the past but have recently shown notable signs
of growth. Additionally, the ranking included larger metropolitan areas
such as Seattle, Los Angeles, and the Washington DC metro area, which have
been quietly growing their venture base over the last ten years. None of
these up-and-coming areas were included in the top five regions for total
venture capital investing in 2007, but that could only be a matter of time,
suggests Mark Heesen, president of the NVCA.

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