The MoneyTree Report, released today by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association, shows Control 4 Corp. led the way for Utah companies with $15.8 million in investments.
The privately held Control 4, a three-year-old company that has been shipping its products since May, does not release specifics on its earnings - but President and CEO Will West said his company's prospects are bright.
"Our revenues have been very strong. I can say they have certainly been well above average for a new technology company," he said. "And we have about 150 employees today; it was half that a year ago."
The nearly $16 million in new investments come from a fundraising round led by Menlo Park, Calif.'s Foundation Capital and Thomas Weisel Partners of San Francisco, West said. Among others participating were Utah's vSpring Capital and Frazier Technology Ventures of Seattle.
"They continue to be some of our most supportive existing investors," West said, adding that the money will be used for a variety of efforts to spur further sales and market growth.
Linux Networx Inc., the Bluffdale-based creator of some of the world's biggest and fastest computers, raked in $10 million - as did Draper's SliceX Inc., which specializes in advanced integrated circuit products.
Joe Strain, a spokesman for PricewaterhouseCoopers, said the state's quarterly investment performance was on par with patterns over the past two years - and reflected financiers' interest in the booming technology sector.
"Almost all of Utah's investments were in software, the Internet and computing of some sort," he said.
Although the quarter's results were off sharply from 2005's opening three months, when 10 companies recorded $90 million in venture capital, Strain said that should not be interpreted as any indication of investment slippage, but an aberration.
"With the exception of [first quarter 2005], the market in Utah has been relatively stable for the past two years," Strain said. "One big deal can push a couple days into another quarter and skew how things look."
In all, nine Utah companies reported venture capital victories. Others were Infopia Inc., an e-commerce applications company, with $8 million; Inflabloc Pharmaceuticals Inc., a biopharmaceutical firm, $6 million; InteliSum Inc., a digital imaging technology company, $4.9 million; Senforce Technologies Inc., a Draper wireless security software enterprise, $3 million; Cymphonix Inc., a Sandy maker of networking management gear, $1.4 million; and Provo's Lingotek Inc., which got $988,000 for its language translation software business.
Nationally, $5.6 billion in venture capital was reported during the first quarter, up from $5 billion the same time last year.
bmims@sltrib.com
