Southern California continued to gain ground on the Bay Area as California’s venture capital hot spot in the second quarter, according to a report released Monday by Ernst & Young and Dow Jones VentureOne.

The region, which includes Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, pulled in a combined $1 billion in investments through 158 financing rounds for the quarter second only to Silicon Valley’s $2.5 billion on 208 deals.

Companies based in Los Angeles received $459 million, up big from $182 million last year with 35 percent of the money going to Internet-based companies.

Nationwide, firms invested $7.4 billion in the second quarter, an 8 percent jump from the same period a year earlier. In total, there were 717 rounds of financing, also up 8 percent, marking the highest deal volume since 2001, the report said.

The median deal size in the second quarter was $8 million, marking the highest median seen since 2000.

Santa Barbara-based Sientra Inc. got the biggest deal of the quarter, tallying an $85 million first-round financing deal, while L.A.-based Reunion.com raised $25 million and Gorilla Nation Media, also based in L.A., received $50 million in late-stage funding.