NEW YORK-Venture capitalists invested more than $160 million in 30 wireless industry companies during the second quarter, according to a survey by Price Waterhouse Technology Industry Group, Dallas.
Overall, venture-backed investments jumped by nearly a third compared with the same period last year, totaling $2.43 billion. This total made the second quarter of 1996 the largest since Price Waterhouse began its quarterly National Venture Capital Survey in the third quarter of 1994, said Donald A. McGovern, chairman of the Technology Industry Group.
Of that total, some $451 million was invested in communications companies and $582 million in computer software companies, according to Kirk Walden, national marketing director of the Technology Industry Group.
“Communications and software seem generally to be moving together; there is potential there that’s not yet been realized,” Walden said. “We want to work with emerging technology companies because of their extraordinary potential.”
The Silicon Valley region of California far outdistanced other regions, with 160 companies receiving total venture capital investments of $769 million.
Many of the wireless industry players that obtained this type of financing last quarter also are California-based.
On the high side of the individual investment spectrum-those receiving multimillion-dollar infusions of venture capital-were companies like ArrayComm Inc. of San Jose, which provides adaptive wireless solutions for the telecommunications industry; Diva Communications Inc. of Berkeley, which makes integrated digital wireless subscriber loop products; Wynd Communications of San Luis Obispo, a provider of wireless data communications services, and Spectrum Wireless Inc. of Mountain View, which develops equipment and software for wireless services providers.
Several big dollar-getters in the wireless communications sector are headquartered in Washington state, including MetaWave Communications Corp., a Redmond developer of systems to enhance wireless networks’ performance.
Another hotbed locus of venture-backed wireless communications-related companies is in the Maryland-Virginia-District of Columbia area. Receiving financing in the second quarter were companies like: Comm Site International Inc. of Vienna, Va., owner and manager of antenna and transmission systems for wireless services providers, and Milliwave L.P. of Washington, involved in 38 GHz wireless voice and data transmission.
The Southeast and Southwest weren’t generally areas of heavy venture capital investment overall last quarter; yet here too, wireless companies received substantial funding. In Florida, wireless retailer Let’s Talk Cellular of America Inc., Miami, and Maitland-based Phoenix Wireless Inc., a wireless local loop provider, garnered multimillion-dollar investments.
In Texas, the big dollar gainers included: personal communications services carrier Chase Telecommunications of Houston; General Wireless Inc., a Dallas-based provider of mobile communications, and Unisite Inc., a Richardson transmission site sharing company.
On the other end of the venture financing spectrum, the distinction for the smallest investment last quarter goes to Newcomb Communications Inc. of Manchester, N.H. The company received $50,000 to abet its business as a provider of software for mobile satellite communications and messaging services for data.
The second-quarter survey results are based on responses from 355 venture capitalists, a 43 percent response rate. The respondents also identified 260 co-investors. Regions leading in the number of venture capitalists and company investments they made were: Silicon Valley in California, New England, the New York City metropolitan area and the Midwest.
Further information about the survey may be obtained from the Price Waterhouse Web site at: http: www.pw.com/vc ventcap.asc
