The Southern California region is now second only to Silicon Valley in venture capital investments, according to a report released Monday by Ernst & Young LLP and Dow Jones VentureOne.

In the first quarter of 2007, Southern California companies received $1.1 billion in funding, a 23 percent jump from the same period last year, the first time Southern California investment has topped $1 billion in a single quarter since 2000.

Most of the $401 million poured into Los Angeles was for information technology concerns, a total of more than $350 million.

“In L.A., there’s an industry group that’s different than anywhere else , information technology, media and entertainment,” said Mike Schoenfeld, Ernst & Young’s director of venture capital advisory group for the Pacific Southwest.

Some of the larger funding amounts in LA county included Amp’d Moblie of Beverly Hills, which brought in more than $107 million and Venice-based Vantage Media Corporation, a web search marketing firm that raked in almost $70 million in first-round financing. Other notables included online legal service LegalZoom.com Inc., which garnered about $45 million.

Overall, California companies received $3.32 billion, a 12.5% increase in the amount of investments compared with the first quarter of 2006.

So far, in the first quarter of this year, the most active venture capital firms in Southern California included Tech Coast Angels, Alta Partners and Domain Associates.