Medtech Venture Investing Declines in First Quarter

Venture investing in the medical device industry continues to be on the decline, according to a report from PricewaterhouseCoopers / National Venture Capital Association report using data compiled from Thomson Reuters.During the first quarter, venture investing was down 20 percent in terms of dollars invested. In addition, there was a 10 percent decrease in the total number of venture investing deals compared to the previous quarter.For 2013 Q1, medical equipment and device investment dropped by $409 million. While there were 71 closed venture investment deals, this is approximately 10 percent less than the previous year."Lower investment levels in the first quarter were driven by a number of factors, none of which were unexpected," stated John Taylor. Taylor works as a research leader at NVCA. He continued, "The venture industry has been raising less capital than it has been investing now for several years, and ultimately this dynamic flows through and manifests itself in lower investment levels overall."Taylor also noted that less money is now going into capital-intensive sectors like the life sciences and clean technology. In particular, first-time deals are on the decrease. In addition, a large number of deals in the IT sector could be dampening overall medtech investing. Since IT startups have very low initial and fixed infrastructure costs, companies in these fields don't require as much capital when getting started as other sectors.More news about medtech venture capital:Medtech Startups Win Massachusetts New Venture CompetitionWhere Has All the Medtech Venture Capital Gone?What's Behind the Flurry of Medical Device M&A Activity?