Global venture-capital investments continue to grow this year, with cleantech deals driving some of that growth, according to Dow Jones VentureOne and Ernst & Young Global.

Venture capitalists invested more than $30 billion in the United States, Europe, China and Israel during the first three quarters of this year, and are on pace to top $40 billion by year's end, the companies said Thursday.

The companies only released cleantech investments through the first half, but said those investments reached $1.1 billion, up 44 percent from the $764.3 million invested during the same period last year.

Most of those investments came from U.S. venture capitalists, who invested $892.6 million in 71 cleantech companies -- a 70-percent increase from the first half of 2008.

But VentureOne and Ernst & Young said investors aren't overfunding startups. The median U.S. cleantech investment was $7.55 million, which the companies said is on par with the country's overall median deal.

Outside the United States, cleantech investment has remained steady. European companies raised $86 million in 19 deals, while Chinese companies snagged $121.1 million in four deals.

The report is one of several attempting to track cleantech deals, and different sources have published a wide array of figures (see this Cleantech Investing post).

The Cleantech Venture Network, for example, reported that third-quarter North American cleantech investments alone totaled $1.3 billion, which exceeds the figures Dow Jones and Ernst & Young tracked globally in two quarters.