As August comes to a close, venture capitalists still aren’t ready to slow up the pace on a summer-long investment marathon, shoveling nearly $1.2 billion into 164 companies worldwide last week.
Weekly totals for amount invested and number of rounds have continued at a regular pace since the end of last month, with number of investments this week just slightly lower than last week’s total of 193.
U.S.-based companies raised 108 of these rounds and nearly $900 million of the cash total, dominating last week’s international venture capital scene. Aside from the 8 venture fundings announced in the U.K. and China and 7 rounds out of India, no other country saw more than 3 funding rounds.
Chinese healthcare app Chunyu announced a $50 million Series C round last Tuesday, setting records for the largest investment in a China-based mobile healthcare startup to date. Chunyu lets users remotely consult with physicians to diagnose daily health issues and currently sees 30 million active users on its platform.
In the U.K., open-source enterprise content management startup Alfresco rang in the largest round with a $45 million Series D funding announced Thursday from investors Sageview Capital, Accel Partners, Mayfield Fund and SAP Ventures.
In the U.S., San Francisco led the charge with 20 rounds captured for a total raised of $160 million. Adding in money raised by companies based in surrounding cities San Jose, Redwood City and Sunnyvale, this total jumps to $310 million bagged by Bay Area companies last week.
On Thursday alone, Bay Area-based companies Xamarin, DoubleDutch, and Lastline all raised Series C+ rounds. Xamarin’s mobile software development platform captured the attention of Insight Venture Partners, who led the $54 million Series C round with participation from all previous investors including Floodgate, Charles River Ventures, Ignition Partners, and Lead Edge.
In Southern California, Santa Monica-based Cloud Imperium Games is breaking records with its crowdfunding campaign, currently at a whopping $52 million, for its new space simulation game “Star Citizen.” Cloud Imperium raised $2 million on Kickstarter in 2012 but this time around is accepting pledges on its own website, aiming to produce the first AAA game developed with money from fans. Over 525,000 fans have pitched in to date and there is currently no campaign deadline in sight.
On the East Coast, New York-based advertising company AppNexus is making headlines as well, raising $60 million in later stage funding from an undisclosed investor that brings its valuation to $1.2 billion – the first billion-dollar company to emerge in the New York ad tech scene. AppNexus provides a platform for buying and selling ads through real-time bidding and currently sees 30 billion ad impressions transacted each day.
Other notable New York fundings of the week include fashionable office products portal Poppin’s $17 million Series C round and a Series A round for Hightower, a mobile real estate platform for landlords and brokers to communicate in real-time.
To keep track of all the daily funding updates, sign up for the CrunchBase Daily Newsletter.
