A Have and Have-Not Venture World
Top venture-capital firms including Accel Partners and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers are riding the frenzy around companies like Facebook Inc. and Groupon Inc. to raise billions of dollars in new funds, even as the rest of the venture industry struggles to gather money.
The new funds stand out in what is a bleak environment for most venture firms. Hit by the financial crisis and poor returns over the past decade, just 119 new venture funds were raised in the U.S. last year, totaling $11.6 billion in assets, according to research firm VentureSource. That was down from 215 new venture funds totaling $40.1 billion in 2007.
“Today’s fund-raising market is a have and have-not market,” said Christopher Douvos, co-head of private-equity investing for the Investment Fund for Foundations, an organization that invests in venture-capital funds on behalf of nonprofits. “The capital is really focused on accessing the best-performing funds.”
