The credit crunch may be slowing down M&A activity, but venture capitalists have returned from their vacations ready for dealmaking.

Columbia Capital of Alexandria, Va., M/C Venture Partners of Boston, Oak Investment Partners of Westport, Conn., Battery Ventures of Wellesley Hills, Mass., and Centennial Ventures of Denver kicked off the end of summer surge in dealmaking with the year's largest funding, a $225 million investment in Zayo Bandwidth Inc.

Since the Aug. 31 financing venture firms have opened their wallets to invest another $450 million in just the last seven days.

Among the largest financings are:

• $65 million for college sports Web site The Active Network, according to Private Equity Hub
• $52 million for solar panel technology developer SolFocus Inc. and its European affiliate
• $45 million for optical networking company Matisse Networks Inc.
• $40 million for solar thermal power startup Ausra Inc.
• $40 million for drug developer Hyperion Therapeutics Inc.
• $36 million for teen-focused cellular startup Kajeet Inc.

In addition to the money VCs are putting to work, they also have been receiving some back. Among last week's larger exits were Yahoo! Inc.'s agreement to acquire BlueLithium Inc., a San Jose, Calif.-based online ad network backed by 3i Group plc and Walden Venture Capital for approximately $300 million. Likewise, LSI Corp. said it was buying Tarari Inc., a San Diego–based maker of silicon and software for packet and message processing, in a deal valued at $85 million. Tarari raised money from Crosspoint Venture Partners, Enterprise Partners Venture Capital, Intel Capital, Morgan Stanley Venture Partners, XML Fund and Miramar Venture Partners.

For more on how private capital firms are shaping deals in the technology and media, but sure to attend Tech Confidential's Convergence 2.0 conference on Sept. 17. —George White

See The Deal's Sept. 4 story on Bluelithium
See The Deal's Sept. 4 story on Solfocus
See The Deal's Sept. 10 story on Ausra
See The Deal's Sept. 5 story on Hyperion Therapeutics
More on Convergence 2.0 conference

Tags: vc, venture+capital