LONDON — Venture capital funding in the electronics and semiconductor sector was relatively weak in July and re-affirmed a stop-go nature to 2005’s investments, particularly in Europe.

Just ten deals were recorded by EE Times' Venture Capital Counter (VCC) and these raised $180.15 million, down from $239.7 million raised across 17 deals in June. July’s figures were also down form the same month a year earlier when 18 deals amassed $217.55 million.

The weakness was a despite a record-breaking $66 million raised by Alien Technology Inc. (Morgan Hill, Calif.) in a Series H round of financing. Venture capitalists are obviously betting on Alien becoming a multi-hundred million dollar giant in the RFID market.

Whereas in June activity in Europe had helped the Venture Capital Counter July’s deal flow was low with only one deal recorded in Europe, with California catching four, the rest of the U.S. three and Canada two deal.

EEVCC monthly break down in 2005

Month 2005	No. of deals	Investment ($million)	Investment/deal ($million)
January	10	$92.70	$9.3
February	16	$208.05	$13.0
March	8	$96.8	$12.1
April	25	$273.3	$10.9
May	16	$190.65	$11.9
June	17	$239.7	$14.1
July	10	$180.15	$18.0
Total	102	$1281.35	$12.6
Source: EE Times, Aug. 1, 2005

EEVCC break down Q-by-Q

Quarter	No. of deals	Investment ($million)	Investment/deal ($million)
Q1 2004	44	$664.5	$15.1
Q2 2004	58	$620.95	$10.7
Q3 2004	41	$492.85	$12.0
Q4 2004	30	$350.6	$11.7
Total 2004	173	$2128.9	$12.3
Q1 2005	34	$397.55	$11.7
Q2 2005	58	$703.65	$12.1
Source: EE Times, July 1, 2005

A detailed record of EEVCC activity in 2004 could be found here when this story was first posted.