The lower level of venture capital investment is outlined in PricewaterhouseCoopers' MoneyTree Survey released earlier this week.

Six Utah companies received funding during the first quarter.

"It's definitely not the upbeat report we've been used to seeing the last two years," said Joe Strain, a PricewaterhouseCoopers spokesman.

Strain indicated that anything from $20 million to $60 million in venture capital investment in Utah companies in one quarter represents a good level of investment.

"We're on the low end of that range because there just weren't any big venture capital deals," he said.

Venture capital professionals said they were puzzled by the drop in investment.

"Whether it's an anomaly or it represents some underlying problem or becomes a fundamental trend, it's too early to tell," said Gary Crocker, president of Crocker Ventures LLC, a venture capital investment company based in Utah.

Crocker said it doesn't matter that Utah's economy is booming, relative to the rest of the country. Venture capital investment decisions are based more on the circumstances of individual companies and their prospects for growth.

Venture capital investment in the state peaked at $708 million in 2000, but dove sharply to $198 million and $89 million in 2001 and 2002 after the technology and dot-com bust. Investment in Utah companies then climbed to $249 million in 2005, but the upward trend was short-lived, dropping to $167 million in 2006. With only $25 million in investment in the first quarter, the total for all of 2007 could be below 2006 levels.

Nationally, venture capital investment through the third quarter totaled $7.1 billion, up from $6.2 billion in the same quarter in 2006, according to the report, based on data from Thomson Financial.

Utah's share of total U.S. venture capital investment in the first quarter was 0.35 percent, down from 0.65 percent for all of 2006.

More troubling news for Utah is the fact that the state's average deal size in the first quarter of $4.2 million was down from the 2006 average of $5.2 million and lower than than the U.S. average of $9.1 million.

lesley@sltrib.com