Xconomy: Northwest Venture Deals Down in Fourth Quarter of 2008---But Still a Few Good Ones

▤ Summary

That’s according to a Dow Jones VentureSource report released over the weekend that seems to confirm that VC firms are getting hit hard by the economic downturn, along with everyone else.On the national front, venture funding for new companies declined by 30 percent in the last three months of 2008, with $5.5 billion in 554 deals.Using the survey data, here are the five biggest tech and life sciences venture deals in Washington during the fourth quarter.—Qwell Pharmaceuticals, a Seattle developer of small-molecule drugs, raised $7 million from Arch Venture Partners and the Wellcome Trust.—Datacastle, a Seattle information-security startup, raised $5.3 million led by the Australian venture firm CM Capital Investments.

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