And you thought the stock market lost it on you. It was STOLEN, America!!!!
"Little ventured for start-ups; Survey finds sharp fall in funding raised in first quarter" by Todd Wallack, Globe Staff | April 18, 2009
The lifeblood of start-ups is drying up.
Venture capital funding fell off a cliff in the first quarter, according to the latest MoneyTree venture capital survey, which is scheduled to be released today. In New England, companies raised $375.7 million in venture capital from January through March, down 55 percent from the same period a year ago and down 51 percent from the fourth quarter.
That's still a pile of $$$.
"It's really tough to get money," said Kevin Shaw, a Boston partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers, the accounting firm that jointly sponsors the survey with the National Venture Capital Association, an industry trade group.
Try getting a job around here.
The decline mirrors a nationwide collapse in venture funding in the wake of the recession and financial crisis, which have made it difficult for venture capital firms to raise new money from investors and nearly impossible for promising private companies to launch initial public offerings.
About the same time your pensions collapsed.
"This goes hand in hand with everything that is going on in the global economy," Shaw said....
Biotechnology and software remained the two hottest industries to receive funding, in New England and nationwide....
Do I really have to comment?
Just four companies raised $20 million or more: BioVex Group Inc., a Woburn vaccine company, raised $40 million; Proteon Therapeutics Inc., a Waltham company developing drugs for renal and vascular diseases, hauled in $25 million; Genocea Biosciences Inc., an early-stage Cambridge vaccine company, landed $23 million; and Ze-Gen Inc., a Brighton firm working on ways to convert waste into gas, got $20 million.
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But other firms in the green energy business weren't so fortunate. After pumping $1.1 billion in venture funding to cleaner energy technologies in the first quarter of 2008 nationwide, venture firms put just $154 million into the sector this past quarter.
Related: The False Promise of Fart Mist
The Fart-Misting Promises of Green Jobs
Noubar Afeyan, managing partner of Flagship Ventures in Boston, said the sector appears to have burst, similar to the dot-com bubble in the past. "Too much money went into too many companies," Afeyan said, though he thought some funding would continue for promising businesses.
Yeah, I thought I smelled something!
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