VENTURE CAPITAL FUND-RAISING ON TRACK TO SURPASS 2011

At the half-year mark, U.S. and European venture capital funds are on track to surpass 2011’s fund-raising totals. Through the first six months of the year, 82 U.S. venture funds raised $13 billion while 27 European venture funds raised $2.3 billion, a 31% and 26% increase, respectively, in capital raised compared to the first half of 2011, according to Dow Jones LP Source.

“Despite the industry’s lackluster returns in recent years, there’s still lots of interest in funds that have good track records or are well-situated to take advantage of broad consumer technology trends,” said Zoran Basich, editor of Dow Jones VentureWire.

“We’re seeing that reflected in the healthy fund-raising numbers.”

Early-Stage Fund-Raising More Than Doubles In The U.S.

The number of U.S. venture funds that raised capital rose 12% to 82 funds in the first half of 2012 from 73 funds in the first half of 2011.

Multi-stage funds proved popular with limited partners, who put so much into the funds that the half-year total matches the fund-raising total for all of 2011. LPs put $7.7 billion into 26 multi-stage funds during the first half, a 35% increase in capital committed from the first half of 2011.

Forty-three early-stage funds raised $3.1 billion, more than double the $1.3 billion raised for 40 funds during the same period last year.

Twelve late-stage venture funds raised $2.1 billion, a 28% decline in fund-raising from the first half of 2011.

European Venture Capital Fund-Raising Rises 26%

Twenty-seven European venture funds held closings during the first half, matching the total from the year-ago period.

In Europe, early-stage funds attracted most of the capital, raising $1.5 billion across 17 funds, a 34% increase in capital committed from the same period last year.

The $689 million raised by nine multi-stage funds was nearly on par with the $681 million raised for the same number of funds during the first half of last year.

One debenture fund raised $79 million during the first half. Later-stage funds did not hold any closings, which is not uncommon in Europe.