A total of 1,378 venture capital deals were announced globally, which is the lowest quarterly number since the fourth quarter of 2011, the organisation said.

Those deals represented a total value of $10.8 billion, a drop from the 1,504 venture capital deals announced in Q2 2013 valued at $11.1 billion.

Regionally, venture capital activity in North America dropped from 910 deals announced in Q2 2013 to 872 deals in Q3 2013. The number of deals in Europe fell by 22 per cent from the second quarter to the third quarter, moving down from 375 to 291.

By contrast, however, China witnessed an 84 per cent increase in the number of venture capital deals in the third quarter from the previous three months; the aggregate value of deals rose by 4 per cent, Preqin said.