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Tech and Biotech: Venture spending up in U.S. but Wisconsin still lags

Venture capitalists across the U.S. pumped more money into promising companies in the second quarter of 2011 than they have in three years. Investments totaled $7.5 billion, more than in any three-month period since the second quarter of 2008, with software, biotech and industrial/energy companies attracting more than 85 percent of the funds, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers/National Venture Capital Association MoneyTree report.

In Wisconsin, investors reported $39.3 million of venture capital allocations and five of the six deals went to Madison companies. But most of the money went to one place: stem cell company Cellular Dynamics International, which raised $30 million.