Last spring Mark Suster posted “Morning In Venture Capital”, where he spoke of good times returning. Alas, the venture spring that Mark evoked seems to be New England spring: cold and rainy, taking longer than we had hoped. A quick look at the industry statistics makes this plain.
Fund raising is the vital statistic: without LPs (limited partners) there are no VCs (venture capitalists). Chart 1 shows the amount of money raised into U.S. venture funds from 2003 (the bottom of the trough following the tech bubble) to June, 2013. Venture fund-raising recovered after the tech bubble and then collapsed during the global financial crisis (“GFC”) of 2008-2009. It has not recovered again.
Graph: Funds raised by U.S. venture capital funds. 2013 is first half annualized. Data via NVCA. Source (Forbes.com)
