Venture Capital Dealmaking Strong in First Quarter

The U.S. companies SpaceX, an aerospace startup, and Uber Technologies, a telecoms outfit, each received $1 billion in the first quarter, the former in an unspecified financing round and the latter in a Series E round.

The following entrepreneurial companies rounded out the 10 biggest deals in the first quarter:

• Aduro BioTech (U.S.)—pharmaceuticals, Series E, $750 million
• Meituan.com (China)—Internet, Series D, $700 million
• Meizu Telecom Equipment Co. (China)—telecoms, unspecified round, $650 million
• Kuaidi Dache (China)—telecoms, Series D, $600 million
• One97 Communications (India)—Internet, unspecified round, $575 million
• Delivery Hero (Germany)—Internet, unspecified round, $568 million
• Lyft (U.S.)—Internet, Series E, $530 million
• Shanghai Lujiazui Int'l Financial Asset Exchange (China)—financial services, unspecified round, $483 million

Preqin reported that the trade sale of Auspex Pharmaceuticals to Teva Pharmaceuticals for $3.2 billion was largest exit from venture capital investments during the first quarter.

The report calculated that venture capital currently available for investments was $132 billion, up $11 billion from the start of the year.

"Managers have significant amounts of capital to deploy, and with many innovative companies vying for investment worldwide, deal activity is likely to remain strong in 2015," Christopher Elvin, Preqin's head of private equity products, said in a statement.

"Yet with the average size of deals growing significantly, there might be slight concerns that valuations for potential investment are becoming inflated."

— Check out Is Investing in Movies a Good Investment Strategy? on ThinkAdvisor.