Number of Venture Capital Funds Hits 16-Year Low
Posted by James Campos on November 4th, 2011
Despite the recent spate of startups scoring millions and even hundreds of millions in venture capital, the number of U.S. funds raising venture capital totaled only 37 in the second quarter of 2011, a 23 percent decrease from the second quarter of 2010, according to data from Thomson Reuters and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA). This marks the lowest number of VC funds since the first half of 1995.
They may be smaller in number, but the amounts these VC funds are raising continue to climb. The 37 funds raised $2.7 billion in the second quarter of 2011, a 28 percent increase from the same period in 2010.
About half that total was raised by Palo Alto-Calif.-based Accel Partners, which gained a reputation as an industry leader for its 2005 investment in Facebook and 2009 investment in Groupon.
“The fact that the number of firms raising money successfully remains at such low levels confirms an ongoing contraction of the venture capital industry, which will serve well those funds that can obtain commitments — but that group is becoming more and more narrow,” Mark Heesen, president of the NVCA, said in a statement. “While a smaller venture industry will intuitively produce higher returns, it is critical that the mix of funds remain geographically diverse and cover a broad base of industries if we expect to contribute to economic growth and innovation at the levels we have historically. For that reason, we would like to see more funds raise money in the second half of the year.”
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Tags: Funds, Venture Capital