Jul. 22--BOULDER, Colo. -- The Boulder oncology startup founded by Pharmion Corp. veterans raised the largest amount of venture capital funding in the nation during the second quarter, when it landed more than $145 million in initial equity funding, according to a quarterly report released Monday.

Clovis Oncology -- launched in May and created to acquire, develop and commercialize anti-cancer agents -- raised $146.3 million, making it the largest deal-maker in the United States for the second quarter, according to the PricewaterhouseCoopers/National Venture Capital Association MoneyTree Report based on data from Thomson Reuters.

Clovis was the only startup- or seed-phase company among the 10 largest investments and nearly doubled the $75 million raised by a California software-as-a-service company.

Officials for Clovis could not be reached for comment.

Clovis' investment accounted for 69 percent of the $211.1 million raised by 16 Colorado companies. Eight of those firms are based in Boulder and Broomfield counties and include companies such as: energy company Tendril Networks, of Boulder; data back-up firm Rebit Inc., of Longmont; and biotechnology company GlobeImmune, of Louisville.

Colorado companies' investments during the most recent three-month period were 1 percent higher than the second quarter of 2008. However, the 2009 second quarter contrasted sharply from the year's first quarter, when companies raised $81 million, the lowest amount of funding since the fourth quarter of 2004, according to data from the MoneyTree report.

Nationally, venture capital firms invested $3.7 billion during the second quarter, a 15 percent increase from the first quarter, according to the report. Compared to the second quarter in 2008, venture capital investments were down more than 50 percent from the $7.6 billion invested in the same quarter last year.

The MoneyTree Report was released on the heels of another quarterly venture capital survey put out on Saturday by Dow Jones VentureSource, which said $5.3 billion was invested in U.S. companies during the second quarter.

The total investments remain lower than the $8.3 billion invested during the second quarter of 2008, but notched a 32 percent increase from the first quarter, officials for Dow Jones VentureSource said in a release.

The two reports have different metrics in calculating the data.

-----

To see more of the Daily Camera, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.dailycamera.com.

Copyright (c) 2009, Daily Camera, Boulder, Colo.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

PHRM, TRIN, TRI,

A service of YellowBrix, Inc.