Jeff Weiner left Yahoo! for a VC firm (two in fact). So did former Paypal and Facebook executive Matt Cohler.
This would seem like a good thing, but the fact is, the VC world is in decline and shrinking:
According to VentureSource, a research unit of VentureWire publisher Dow Jones:
- There were 844 venture firms investing in U.S. companies last year, 40 fewer than in 2006
- That is down 30% from the bubble year of 2000, when there were nearly 1,200 active investors.
- The total includes a substantial number of firms–224, or 27% of the total–who didn’t back any new companies last year, an indication that the ranks of active investors will continue to thin.
- Less than half–45%–completed four or more investments.- 29% made just one investment:
- About 550 firms have made at least one investment in a U.S. company this year.
- In all, the NVCA has about 470 member firms representing 90% of the venture capital under management in the U.S.
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