Initial public offering activity continues to show signs of strengthening. Twenty-four companies that were backed by venture capital money went public in the third quarter, raising $3.2 billion, according to the National Venture Capital Association and Thomson Venture Economics.
The number of IPOs was down from the second quarter, when 29 companies raised $2.1 billion.
Google Inc.’s IPO in August was by far the largest of the quarter. The Internet search company raised $1.7 billion, slightly more than half of the money raised during the quarter. The next largest venture-backed IPOs were MortgageIT Inc. and Ness Technologies; both raised $175.2 million.
It was the third consecutive quarter that venture-backed companies raised more than $2 billion.