U.S. venture capital firms just gathered up the most money they’ve raised in a decade

Many in Silicon Valley may be worrying more and more about how to transform their startup stakes into cold, hard cash. But that’s not stopping institutionalinvestors from writing out some very big checks to venture capital firms.

Somewhat astonishingly, U.S. firms just closed on more capital commitments than they have since the second quarter of 2006, according to new data from the National Venture Capital Association and Thomson Reuters. In hard numbers, 57 U.S. firms raised $12 billion in the first quarter, a 59 percent jump in dollar commitments over the first quarter of 2015.

Institutional investors aren’t necessarily spreading the wealth, with the number of funds raised down 17 percent from this time last year.

Indeed, as you can see from this downloadable fund list, roughly half the new capital commitments in the first quarter were locked up by just four firms: Founders Fund, which announced a new $1.3 billion fund; Norwest Venture Partners, which closed on $1.2 billion; Accel Partners, which raised $2 billion across two funds; and Lightspeed Venture Partners, which sealed up two funds totaling $1.2 billion.

Close behind them,…  Read more: click image or title.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: techcrunch.com

About kennethcarnesi

Kenneth Carnesi holds a Juris Doctor degree from New York Law School and a Professional Certificate in International Banking from Harvard Law School. Kenneth Carnesi is the Director of Operations and Government Sales at Anaptyx LLC and sits on the Boards of The Lazarus Organization, Monkeetech LLC and MG Madison Phillips, Inc. Mr. Carnesi has also founded CICG - Carnesi International Consulting Group, a company specializing in strategy consulting to small to mid-size businesses.