Monday, July 9, 2012

Venture Capital Fundraising On Uptick

It looks like it's going to be a good year for venture capital -- fundraising, that is, according to numbers released by Dow Jones Monday. According to Dow Jones, 82 U.S. venture funds raised $13 billion in the first six months of the year, a 31 percent increase in fundraising activity compared with the first half of 2011. Dow Jones did not break down geographic spread of the VC fundraising, but said that the venture capital fundraising was particularly robust in the early stage area, with 43 early-stage funds raising $3.1 billion, more than double the $1.3 billion raised by 40 funds last year in the same period. Although it looks like things are turning up for venture capital fundraising, in general, so far, Southern California's indigenous venture capital funds have not been as fortunate with their fundraising efforts, despite a significant number of high profile, positive exits for local startups. The result has been that--aside from a handful of local active funds with cash in the bank--a large portion of local startups now gaining funds from out-of-town venture capitalists, or from alternatives like individual angels, angel groups, and more traditional private equity firms.

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