Venture Capital

Venture capitalists' investments in U.S. startups rose in the third quarter when compared with the first two quarters of the year, suggesting increased confidence in the economy. When compared with the year-ago period, however, they marked a fifth consecutive quarter of decline. As the economic downturn has dragged on, venture capitalists have become increasingly cautious about investing in startups. The dismal economy has made it less likely that startups can find a buyer or complete initial public offerings. That means venture capitalists have more difficulty seeing returns on their investments, leaving them less likely to pour money into new companies. That caution was reflected ... Read Full Story

Many ventures are faced with the challenging task of raising venture capital. The first part of this process is finding the right venture capital firm (VC). While this may seem simple, it isn’t. There are thousands of venture capital firms in the United States alone, and going after the wrong ones is one of the most common reasons why companies fail to raise the capital they need. When seeking a venture capital firm, there are six key variables to consider: location, sector preference, stage preference, partners, portfolio and assets. Location: most venture capital firms only invest within 100 miles of their office(s). By investing ... Read Full Story

This is a special snippet post summarising the Big Tech Buyouts article from BusinessWeek , by Douglas MacMillan. All images copyright of BusinessWeek. Silicon Valley angel investor Jeff Clavier “It’s a good time to be an investor because there are tons of opportunities out there that are interesting,”. What’s good for investors is an outright bonanza for entrepreneurs. Not only are established Internet acquirers such as Google ( GOOG ), Yahoo! ( YHOO ), and News Corp. ( NWS ) spending lavishly on budding properties, companies such as Hearst and Getty Images ( GYI ) are placing smaller, strategic bets. But what changes when ... Read Full Story

In the third quarter of 2009, we saw a slight rebound in venture funding from earlier in the year. But which venture capital firms were the most active in the quarter? One of my favorite new tables in our latest TechCrunch Trends report , which is based on company data we collect in CrunchBase , is the ranking of the most active venture capital firms. We've reproduced that ranking below in two interactive tables which show the top 25 most active VC firms in both the third quarter of 2009 and the most active year-to-date. (You can see a list of the top 100 ... Read Full Story

In the third quarter of 2009, we saw a slight rebound in venture funding from earlier in the year. But which venture capital firms were the most active in the quarter? One of my favorite new tables in our latest TechCrunch Trends report , which is based on company data we collect in CrunchBase , is the ranking of the most active venture capital firms. We've reproduced that ranking below in two interactive tables which show the top 25 most active VC firms in both the third quarter of 2009 and the most active year-to-date. (You can see a list of the top 100 ... Read Full Story

Investments by venture capital firms rebounded last quarter, reversing five quarters of declines, but remain near 13-year lows. Venture capitalists invested $3.7 billion in the second quarter, up 15% from the first, while the number of deals overall was about even at 612, according to the MoneyTree report set to be released Tuesday. For the first time since the National Venture Capital Association and others started tracking these data in 1980, biotech surpassed software as the largest single category of venture investment. Investment in life sciences, including biotech, jumped 47% to $1.5 billion. But information technology, including software, stayed just ahead of life sciences, ... Read Full Story

Venture capitalists cut their U.S. investments in half during the spring, the second-consecutive quarter to mark a more than 50 percent decline, leaving the money flowing to startups at the slowest trickle in 12 years. Nearly $3.7 billion poured into 612 venture-capital deals in the three months ending in June, according to statistics released Tuesday by PricewaterhouseCoopers, Thomson Reuters and the National Venture Capital Association. The dollars invested represented a 51 percent drop from more than $7.5 billion during the same period last year. The erosion followed the first quarter's year-over-year decline of 58 percent to $3.2 billion. It's the first time U.S. venture ... Read Full Story