The Red Sox won the World Series, the Patriots are poised for a SuperBowl tussle and the Celtics are resurgent, but Boston venture capitalists were narrowly edged out for the No. 2 venture capital slot in 2007 by Southern California, a new survey shows.

Despite a $967 million fourth quarter that brought Boston investments to $3.7 billion, a 19 percent year-over-year increase, Southern California, including San Diego and Los Angeles, tacked on 12 percent to $3.8 billion to trail only Northern California's Bay Area, according to a survey by Dow Jones VentureOne.

Two thousand and seven was the second year in a row that Southern California took second place based on the geographical rankings of the survey.

Nationwide, venture funding rose 8 percent to $29.9 billion in 2,648 deals. Startups attracted $7.3 billion in the fourth quarter, a 15 percent increase over the prior year's period.

Firms in the top-rated Bay Area raked in $9.9 billion in 818 deals. The dollar volume marked a 3 percent increase over 2006. Sequoia Capital topped the list of regional dealmakers with 10, followed by Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and Foundation Capital with nine each and Duff Ackerman & Goodrich with eight. Median amount invested per round of financing was $10 million.

Though VCs closed 326 deals in Boston compared with 272 in Southern California, the deals in the Golden Gate state were meatier, with a median size of $10 million. That compares with $7.8 million for the Boston region. Average median round size nationwide was $7.6 million, about 9 percent higher than in 2006.

The busiest VCs in Southern California were Domain Associates with five deals and InnoCal Venture Capital and Enterprise Partners Venture Capital, with three deals each. VCs put the bulk of their funding into health care ($1.7 billion) and information technology ($1.5 billion).

All that activity easily made California the biggest magnet for venture cash, accounting for almost $14 billion, or 47 percent, of all dollars invested.

Boston's most prolific dealmakers were Polaris Venture Partners and North Bridge Venture Partners with eight a piece, followed by Highland Capital Partners with seven and Sigma Partners and Flagship Ventures with six.

Funding to companies in the New York City region declined 9 percent to $2.1 billion with information technology firms taking in the biggest chunk at $927.8 million.

Investment in companies in North Carolina's Research Triangle surged 60 percent in 2007 to $783.9 million with information technology getting $388 million and health care receiving $326 million.

Also recording a double-digit percentage increase was Washington state, whose $1.4 billion funding level was 24 percent higher than the prior year.

Investment in Texas dipped to $1.1 billion from $1.2 billion in 2006, while funding in the Potomac region fell below the $1 billion mark to $982 billion. Funding in Florida companies had a slight uptick to $375 million from $371 million.