Last month, I mentioned how busy this summer felt in terms of venture deals -- a possible sign that things were coming to life in the startup arena. Now, thanks in part to the folks at ChubbyBrain, an information services company that tracks the venture capital and startup industries, we have some figures that shed some light on what I was already seeing on the street.

During July and August, venture investors pumped $67.5 million into 15 startup companies in Washington state. There's still one month to go in the third quarter -- historically the weakest period of the year for venture financing since entrepreneurs, lawyers and investors take vacations. But on the surface, $67.5 million is nothing to sneeze at.

After all, during the fourth quarter of last year when the recession was in full swing, venture capitalists invested only $76 million in Washington state, according to the MoneyTree report. During the first quarter, the totals stood at $100 million and then climbed to $122 million in the second quarter. (Editor's note: A reader points out that the MoneyTree's VC numbers for Washington state now stand at $90 million for Q4, $103 million for Q1 and $123 million for Q2. The numbers I originally eported were based on the MoneyTree reports at the time of release. It is worth noting that MoneyTree revises its numbers each quarter, causing some fluctuations from the original reports. )

That's a nice trajectory, which seems to indicate that venture capitalists are once again opening their pocketbooks. Obviously, there are still big problems in the venture industry -- namely a lack of returns.

But, at the very least, investors seem to have escaped from the "deer-in-the-headlights" mentality from 10 months ago.

This month will be a critical one to watch, especially if the dollar totals surpass those of last quarter.

Already, we've seen the announcement of $13 million for Voicebox Technologies, though it is unclear whether that deal will get counted by the data service providers since it involved foreign corporate investors and the money came in over several months.

There have been a few other small deals, which you can track here. I have my doubts that another $50 million or so will come in the door this month, but one surprising big deal could do the trick. I'll be watching and reporting on what happens throughout the month, so stay tuned.

Meanwhile, ChubbyBrain co-founder Anand Sanwal is finding that the trends in Washington state are holding up nationwide.

"Essentially, the strong sequential growth in funding levels we saw in Q2 '09 over Q1 '09 does not appear to have been a head fake as Q3 has been holding its own so far," he said via email. "Of course, we're waiting to see how September closes."

[Flickr photo via mmcdonnell]