Venture capital is flowing to Utah firms

The amount of venture capital flowing to Utah companies rose to $109.8 million in the three months ended March 31, an increase of 174 percent from $40.1 million raised in the first quarter of 2004, according to Salt Lake-based MountainWest Capital Network.

The MountainWest Capital survey is separate from a recent MoneyTree Survey, by PricewaterhouseCoopers, which said Utah companies raised $90 million in venture capital funding in this year's first quarter, a 400 percent increase over $18 million in last year's first quarter.

Still, both reports show an upward trend in venture money flowing to Utah.

Brad Bertoch, president and chief executive officer of the Wayne Brown Institute, a Salt Lake-based nonprofit that helps businesses find funding, recently said that the MountainWest survey "is much more local, so they get a much better pulse on the deals that happen."

"MoneyTree underreports on an annual basis about 60 percent," Bertoch said. "Having said that, the trends in PricewaterhouseCoopers are always good. The trends are always the same."

Yet the MountainWest Capital survey omitted a $45 million venture deal to AMP Resources of Draper. That deal was included in the MoneyTree survey.

Scott Young, chairman of MountainWest Capital Network deal flow, said the AMP deal actually closed in second quarter, and noted that the deal would be included in its second-quarter results.

The MountainWest Capital report said Utah mergers and acquisitions in the first quarter were valued at $282.4 million, 68.4 percent higher than during the same period last year.

There was one initial public offering by a Utah company in the first quarter, compared to none during the same period a year ago. In February, Salt Lake-based Huntsman Corp. raised $1.45 billion.

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