More Misleading Venture Capital Numbers
from the does-it-really-matter dept
It seems like every week there's a new study coming out showing just how little venture capitalists are investing these days. The latest such study is doubly misleading. First, it indicates that VCs only raised $1.9 billion last year, the lowest amount since 1981. This isn't exactly true. They actually raised $6.9 billion, but other VCs gave back $5 billion, leading to a net number of $1.9 billion. Still, $6.9 billion was raised - and in some sense this was really just a shifting of VC money from VCs who couldn't handle the amount they had to those who (hopefully) could. Furthermore, looking at how much they raise in a single year isn't necessarily indicative of how much they'll invest. These funds can last a while and looking specifically at how much the VCs raised indicates little, if anything, about the current climate.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
