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The investment analysts at CB Insights have released their quarterly report on venture capital activity, and in terms of deal-flow and funding levels, the news is good. The first quarter of 2011 saw these return to their pre-recession levels with financing for Internet companies up 83% from the last quarter of 2010.

According to the deals tracked by CB Insights, 738 deals were funded in the first quarter, with a total of some $7.5 billion in VC investment. That increase will be used, of course, as "proof" that there's a bubble. It's a one billion dollar jump from the previous quarter, even though the number of deals has sad the same. That's just one interpretation of the statistics, of course.

There's a lot of data available online - about companies, about entrepreneurs, about investors. An excellent source is CrunchBase, a free and editable directory. Crunchbase has a wealth of information, but according to Sri Harsha, that information is under-utilized. While there's a page for a company or organization, there isn't a way, in Harsha's words to see "the big picture."

In some ways, the Q&A site Quora has become so popular among technology folks for that very reason. It helps provide people with more information and answers about angel investment. But Harsha has created another tool - Fundastic.info, using the data already available through the CrunchBase API to help visualize investment information.

According to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing released yesterday, the investment firm Sequoia Capital has raised at least $1.3 billion for a new fund.

The filing was uncovered in a story by Fortune, which points to a memo from the University of Michigan Regents, a longtime investor with Sequoia, to describe the strategy of the new fund. According to that document, the fund will continue the firm's focus on investment in early and growth stage technology companies in the U.S. and expand its investment efforts in those same sorts of early stage companies in China.

If you thought Groupon's $950 million was big, hold on to your hats. Facebook has announced that it has raised $1.5 billion in funding at a $50 billion valuation.

According to the release, the company has received $1 billion from Goldman Sachs Overseas Offering today, which, when combined with the previous $500 million, equals the $1.5 billion investment. Read on for details and a Facebook-led Q&A on the deal.

Venture capitalists say they plan to invest more next year, according to a survey released today by the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and Dow Jones VentureSource. The survey polled 330 venture capitalists and 180 CEOs for their thoughts on where they see investment headed in 2011.

Fifty one percent of VCs said that they expect investment to increase next year; 24% say they think it will remain the same, and the same percentage think investment will decrease. The CEOs surveyed were also optimistic about venture funding: 58% indicated they think it will rise and 64% said they plan to raise funds in 2011.

The website FormDs.com has posted a very interesting map with a breakdown of investment dollars over the course of the past year. The map caught the eye of Boulder-based venture capitalist Jason Mendelson - not surprisingly, as the map points to Colorado as one of the most entrepreneurial states.

FormDs.com bases its findings on the filings, as the name suggests, Form D, an SEC requirement when startups and other privately-held companies raise venture capital. By tracking these filings, the site is able to get a decent glimpse into not just to whom but to where the money is headed.

European startup incubator Seedcamp has launched a new online platform, Seedsummit.org, aimed at connecting startups with European seed investors. An attempt to create a European version of the incredibly successful AngelList, plans for the website grew out of the Seedsummit conference last year, along with the recognition that Europe needed a "stronger more cohesive network to support enrepreneurs."

A group of banks, investors and technology experts announced today their search for the "nation's top financial technology innovators" who will participate in the FinTech Innovation Lab. Six entrepreneurs will be selected to participate in a 12-week lab program that will begin in May 2011. Qualified applicants must have at least a working alpha version of their technology, ready for testing for the institutional or retail market.

Andreessen Horowitz has raised another $650 million for its investment fund, the firm announced yesterday. The firm is just shy of 18 months old, started in June of 2009 as a joint venture between Ben Horowitz and Marc Andreessen. The initial fund was $300 million, which the firm has used to make investments in a number of prominent companies, including Foursquare and Zynga.

The size and the speed with which the firm raised this second round - in under three weeks - points to the momentum, and more importantly, the respect with which the firm is seen. But even so, with swirling controversies around what the future of investing will look like - seed, angel, and VC alike - it's not surprising that Horowitz has taken to his blog to explain some of the questions people may have about the "why's."

A little less than a month ago, we reported on ChubbyBrain's new Funding Recommendation Engine, a service that will help entrepreneurs find suitable investors. The recommendation engine is based on the research from CB Insights and as such offers a "reverse due diligence," so that startups can glean insights about where best to aim their funding pitches.

One month in, ChubbyBrain has released some of the demographic information about those who've signed up for the service. And while by no means an all-encompassing study of the startup funding landscape, it is nonetheless an interesting look at the demographics of the 1173 entrepreneurs who've enrolled for the ChubbyBrain service.