A positive sign
Fundraising overview
An unexpectedly robust debut to 2016
U.S. VC fundraising
U.S. fundraising numbers for the first
quarter of 2016 were considerably
robust, a sign of strength that took
some aback. Others, heartened by
the figures, posited those strong
numbers were additional evidence
that the venture environment was
merely cooling down to more
reasonable levels, with both LPs and
firms remaining confident for the
long term. The total of capital raised
would actually have been much lower,
but was boosted significantly by
multiple fund closes north of $300
million in size, such as Accel XIII
Strategic Partners at $500 million,
Battery Ventures XI at $650 million
and Founders Fund VI at $1.3 billion.
This bevy of large vehicles leads to
another useful point regarding the
timing of fundraising cycles. Looking
at the number of closed funds in 1Q,
it’s undeniable that many firms are still
able to rake in LP commitments, which
Capital raised ($B)
250
# of funds closed
191
180
187
187
236
191
150
134
115
$11
$37
$34
$20
$24
$25
$19
$12
$33
$34
$36
63
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016*
Source: PitchBook
*As of 3/31/2016
A cluster of large funds is primarily responsible for the strong start in terms of dollars raised
U.S. VC fundraising
Capital raised ($B)
56
51
44
48
45
62
64 66
49
63
53 53
$10.6
$11.7
$4.0
$11.5
$9.4
$8.5
$7.5
$9.3
$9.0
$5.7
$4.3
$4.4
$6.0
$7.9
$4.6
$8.6
$2.7
33
30
$10.0
28
$2.4
$3.8
$6.1
32
$4.2
57 55
40
26
$3.0
50
67 66
34
$6.1
39
$8.2
# of funds closed
1Q 2Q 3Q 4Q 1Q 2Q 3Q 4Q 1Q 2Q 3Q 4Q 1Q 2Q 3Q 4Q 1Q 2Q 3Q 4Q 1Q 2Q 3Q 4Q 1Q
2010
2011
2012 ((