Venture capital funding trending away from traditional “start-ups”
October 22, 2009
Interesting article on Boston.com this week, Venture funding inching up, about the Boston venture capital scene.
Even though overall venture capital investments were down 37% this Q3 over last Q3, they rose by 16% over Q2 of this year. GREAT NEWS! Just in New England, Q3 investments totaled $558.8 million dollars, 14.7% higher than last quarter.
The trend seems to be that venture capital firms are investing in later stage companies as well as re-investing in their current portfolio, which has been Scott and OpenView Venture Partners’ plan from the get-go. OpenView actually is “saving” about 40% of our first fund for possible re-investments in our first nine companies.
First time financing for last quarter overall was only $600 million across the US, the lowest level since venture capital companies really started in the mid 90s.
In that sense, OpenView was a little ahead of its time as we invest in not only great ideas, but experienced teams, a proven product, proven business model, etc. and then act as a consulting team for our portfolio.