Venture firms are growing; where are the boutique VCs?
 |
| Jeff Hindenach |
The median size of venture capital firms is growing.
So are the small boutique firms going extinct? Those with one or two partners, who want to invest $1 million or so, and really get into the trenches with the entrepreneurs they support? We write about this increasingly rare species in this Mercury News story. We mention the latest moves in Silicon Valley by Alsop-Louie, Geneva Ventures, Ridgelift and several others. In part, angels are stepping in to fill the void — and so you’re seeing large angel rounds like those of Kaboodle and StumbleUpon.
You’ll also see links to our quarterly venture capital survey, which can be good for people (job seekers, etc) keeping track of companies getting funded here in Silicon Valley, along with links to previous reports.
In Europe, the median size of VC firms grew to $50 million in the first quarter, up from $32 million for all of last year — and so firms are still relatively small there. But here in the U.S., the median sized fund has rocketed past $200 million. The data comes from VentureOne, a unit of Dow Jones.
Next Story: Oracle asks Stanford's Joe Grundfest to resign from board (there's history)
Previous Story: The CIA's other man in Silicon Valley: Will Johnson
About the Author, Matt Marshall
Matt launched VentureBeat in September of 2006, with the realization that no one else was covering the entrepreneurial and tech innovation scene with the velocity or depth that he was. Prior to founding VentureBeat, he covered venture capital for the San Jose Mercury News from 2001 to 2006. In 2002, Matt was awarded "Journalist of the Year" by the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists. Prior to working at the Merc, he was a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal in Bonn, Germany from 1995 to 1998, and a writer for the Washington Post in 1994. Matt holds a PhD in Government and an MA in German and European Studies from Georgetown University. In addition to VentureBeat, Matt is also the Executive Producer of DEMO, the leading launchpad event for emerging technologies.
