Accera led state in fourth-quarter VC

BOULDER – Three Boulder Valley companies – two in Boulder and one in Broomfield – led the state in venture capital financing in the fourth quarter, receiving a total of $40.7 million from investors.

Accera Inc., a Broomfield-based company that is developing food that helps treat patients with Alzheimer’s, led the state in the amount of venture capital financing received in the fourth quarter, with $15.7 million, according to a MoneyTree Report compiled by Pricewaterhouse Coopers and the National Venture Capital Association, based on data supplied by Thomson Reuters.

Tendril Networks Inc. in Boulder, an energy-software company received $15 million in the fourth quarter. Minute Key Inc. in Boulder, a consumer products company, received $10 million to build a computer hardware and software system, according to the report.

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Ten of the 21 companies in Colorado that raised venture capital in the quarter were from Boulder or Broomfield counties. Those 10 companies raised more than $45.7 million of the $85.8 million raised in Colorado – a little more than half of the total for the state.

The other seven Boulder area companies that received venture capital financing in the fourth quarter were:

Lanx Inc. in Broomfield received $2 million for a spinal surgery device.

VictorOps Inc. in Lafayette received $1.6 million to develop a software platform.

EnVysion LLC in Louisville received $1.4 million. The company makes web-based video surveillance systems.

MobileDay Inc. in Boulder received $1 million to develop its mobile meeting platform.

Ubooly Inc. in Boulder received $300,000 to develop a toy application for mobile phones.

Lagrange Systems Inc. in Boulder received $300,000. The company makes cloud-based Internet applications.

Jarvis Labs LLC in Longmont, a business technology incubator, did not disclose the amount that it received.

In total, statewide venture capital funding of $85.8 million in the fourth quarter was down more than 52 percent from the previous quarter’s funding of $179.8 million, according to the report. The number of deals, 21, also was down a little more than 25 percent from the 28 reported in the third quarter.

The drop in funding statewide was mirrored by a national drop of 10 percent in dollars and a 6 percent decline in deals, according to a press statement. Total fourth-quarter investment across the United States came in at $6.4 billion in 968 companies.

For the year, 99 Colorado companies received $559.7 million in venture capital financing in 2012. That was a 9.1 percent drop in financing from the $615.7 million received by 107 companies in 2011.