Of Chimpanzees, VCs And Fund Sizes

Venture Capital

from the anyone-can-do-it dept

Matt Marshall, over at Silicon Beat, has a bit of fun joking about some of the new VC funds out there, quoting Sequoia’s Mike Moritz supposedly saying, “even a chimpanzee could raise $100M” as a way of showing just how many new VC funds seem to be coming into existence these days. However, the facts speak otherwise, suggesting that the days of the $100 million fund may be going away, as the median VC fund size is growing and even the big VC players are moving towards mid-sized $250 million to $500 million funds. Of course, the types of funds being raised often reflect the startup funding practices of the day, and with new reports mentioning bubble-like speed in getting term sheets in front of entrepreneurs, it seems likely that funds of all shapes and sizes will start growing again. When the startup market looks hot, as it did in the late 90s there was a growth of both the big funds (remember how everyone wanted to have a billion dollar fund?) and the smaller “vanity” VC funds from new entrants to the VC world who think they can offer something new or different.