Peter Crocker

Report: U.S. Mobile Venture Capital Investment, Q2 2010

Table of Contents

  1. Summary
  2. Market Overview
    1. Mobile and Wireless Market
    2. The Venture Capital Market
    3. Mobile and Wireless VC Investing
    4. Largest Mobile and Wireless Deals
    5. Telecom Services
    6. Mobile Software and Services
  3. VC Investment by Region
    1. Three States Dominate Investment
    2. California is Dominating
    3. East Coast Investment Slowed While West Coast Grew
  4. Deal Analysis
    1. Round
  5. Conclusion
  6. Further Reading
  7. About Peter Crocker
  8. About CB Insights

1. Summary

Venture capital investment in the mobile and wireless industry grew to $312 million in the second quarter of 2010, a 2 percent increase over the previous quarter. This capital was committed to 37 deals and represents 5 percent of all venture capital invested in the quarter.

Venture capital investing in the mobile and wireless industry is fueled by a number of macro trends. Increasing smartphone usage and growing consumption of mobile content is driving demand for applications and network bandwidth. The emergence of the “Internet of things” — the connection of machines to the mobile Internet — is meanwhile creating new growth opportunities for carriers and efficiencies for enterprises.

Segments within the mobile and wireless industry that received that most capital include wireless telecom services, mobile payments, VoIP and IMS, application development and social networking. The largest five deals in the mobile and wireless industry represented 31 percent of capital invested in the quarter. However, deal size in the mobile and wireless industry, while trending higher over the past four quarters, is still smaller than the average VC deal across all industries. The majority of startups funded are headquartered in Massachusetts, New York and California, with the latter attracting the greatest amount of capital.