Private Venture Money Raised: Biotechnology (SEC Form D industry group)

## What this measures

The money U.S. private operating companies that chose the industry group "Biotechnology" on Form D report raising in venture-like equity offerings in each calendar quarter, in billions of U.S. dollars.

## Why it matters

Which industries private money is going into, quarter by quarter, from public filings rather than deal databases.

## How it is made

Every company that sells securities under Rule 506 of Regulation D files a notice, Form D, with the SEC within 15 days of the first sale, and amends it at least once a year while the offering runs. The SEC's Division of Economic and Risk Analysis publishes every notice as filed in quarterly data sets (2009 onward). Palanor loads all of them. An offering is its SEC file number (an amendment, Form D/A, keeps the number of the notice it amends), and each filing reports the total sold so far, so the money a filing adds is its total minus the previous filing's.

**Venture-like offerings** are equity (alone or with debt, options or other securities) sold under Rule 506 by a U.S. private operating company: no pooled-fund interests, no funds or deal vehicles, no banks, investment vehicles, oil and gas, coal or real estate, no limited partnerships or business trusts, no registered investment companies, no business combinations, and no company that was already an SEC reporting company. Offerings with a filing that adds $1 billion or more count only after a hand review (typing errors such as $105 billion for a $105 million round are dropped). The full rule list is in the Palanor code (src/lib/form-d/venture.ts), the same definition as Palanor's other Form D series. The industry group is the one the filing gives (Form D, Item 4); each filing's money counts in the group it names.

## How to read it

A quarterly level. Smaller groups have few raises per quarter, so one large round can make a quarter; read the trend over several quarters.

## What it does not cover

Form D is a notice of an exemption, not an announced funding round. Companies that raise without Rule 506, or file late or never, are missing, and some of the largest private companies raise without a notice of their own (only their investor vehicles file). Amounts are what companies report as sold, in the quarter the notice is filed, not when the money was wired. The industry group, state and fund type are the filer's own answers on the form and are not checked. Form D industry groups are coarse and self-chosen: most technology companies pick "Other Technology", and "Computers" means hardware makers more than software.

## Source

Palanor calculation from SEC Form D filings (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Form D data sets; public domain).