A recent report from Fenwick and West has given an interesting summary of venture capital investments in Q2 2010.

Investments have risen by 64% to $7.7B (744 deals) from $4.7B (602 deals) in Q1 ’10 (Source: VentureSource). 55% were up rounds (47% in Q1 ’10) compared to 27% down rounds with an average price increase of 30% compared to 21% in Q1.

Sounds positive? A point to be noted is that the highest jump in financings have been in Series D rounds with earlier stage investments decreasing significantly. That does re-emphasize the risk averseness we’re seeing in the VC industry.

A cut of VC investments by rounds:

And a percentage of down rounds by series:

The key segments which have seen investments continue to be life sciences, cleantech and internet/ digital media

Continuing with the risk aversion pattern there is an increase in senior liquidation preference terms across series with a higher number of double and triple dips across series as well:

All this is as far as VC investments in start-ups are concerned. At the other end of the scale are VC fundraisings and they have declined in the second quarter. 38 firms raised $1.9B as compared to 38 firms raising $3.7B in Q1.

There have however been a higher number of IPOs (17 compared to 9 in Q1) and acquisitions of venture-backed companies. With this increase in successful exits we should see some improvement in venture capital fundraisings and investments in the coming months particularly as the tax and the regulatory policies stabilise.