Last week, the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), a trade association representing the U.S. venture capital industry, released the results of its MoneyTree Report on venture funding for the third quarter of 2014. The report, which is prepared by the NVCA and PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP using data from Thomson Reuters, indicates that venture capitalists invested $9.9 billion in 1,023 deals in the third quarter, which constituted a 27% decrease in dollars and a 9% decrease in deals as compared with the second quarter of 2014, when nearly $13.5 billion was invested in 1,129 deals (see chart below, which shows total venture funding from the first quarter of 2011 through the third quarter of 2014; data from MoneyTree Reports; click on chart to expand). Despite the third quarter decline, total venture funding for 2014 ($33.0 billion) has already eclipsed total funding for all of 2013 ($30.0 billion).
