This post, from Dan Primack at Fortune.com, is one of the most thoughtful quick comments on the state of venture fund-raising. What he does not talk about is the geographic dispersion of those “haves”. No one outside of Silicon Valley or Boston is on Fund 10, much less Fund 15. Regions such as San Diego have been dis-proportionately affected by this trend. To support our entrepreneurs we will have to create new models and get more than our fair share of funding.
From “The Termsheet” at Fortune.com
*** Charles River Ventures today will announce that it has closed its fifteenth fund with $375 million in capital commitments. The firm originally went out with a $300 million target just over two months ago, and was oversubscribed well beyond what it ultimately accepted.
CRV still has some dry powder remaining in the $320 million fund it raised in early 2009, so don’t expect CRV XV to be tapped until the end of Q2 or early Q3.
This close – both its size and speed – fits into the VC market’s larger narrative of haves and have-nots. A group of around two dozen firms seems able to raise what they want, when they want. The rest spend months, if not years, begging and pleading for a few LP crumbs. As the stratification continues to harden, it will be interesting to see how many new firms are able to break through – and if any of the current “haves” will fall out of LP favor…
