Venture Capital Today A Perspective
Sanjay Subhedar
Co-founder & Managing Director,
Storm Ventures
Storm Ventures
To understand Venture Capital today, we need to first look back at the past performance of this investment class. Historically Venture Capital returns have been on average 800 basis points better than the stock market. In other words when the NASDAQ, DJIA or S&P 500 were delivering 12 percent to 15 percent returns then the Venture Capital industry in aggregate was delivering 20 percent to 30 percent. Now those were average returns for the whole asset class with some funds delivering returns as high as 80 percent IRR’s and correspondingly there others with returns that were lower than the average or even negative. On the whole, however, returns in Venture Capital were better than what you would have received by investing in bonds or stocks and the venture capital industry therefore attracted more capital and more managers.
By 2000 assets allocated to Venture Capital had grown to a peak of over $300 billion (worldwide) managed by over 1,000 venture firms in about 1,800 funds (Venture firms often have multiple funds). Then in 2000, we had the dot com bubble burst and Venture returns took a tumble, as did the NASDAQ, which peaked at 5,132 in early 2000. In 2008 we saw another big correction in the stock market and the beginning of the “great recession”. The first decade of the 21st century (2000 to 2010) has been tough for investors in all sectors; Bonds, Stocks, Real Estate as well as in Venture Capital. As returns fell, venture capital assets shrunk from the peak of $300 billion to about $180 billion and the number of venture firms has dropped from over a 1,000 to just a bit over 794, of which 462 were in the U.S. Venture Capital has done much more than generate returns, it has helped create new products, services and industries that fundamentally changed how we live our daily lives. For example, in the old days to create a major corporation, you would have to have your own manufacturing and your own sales force in the major markets of the world therefore requiring more money additional time to build a $10 million, $100 million or billion dollar business.
In the four decades starting in 1960’s innovations funded by venture capital delivered very impressive amounts of computing horsepower, terabytes of storage and gigabytes of bandwidth all at very low costs. Cheap and ubiquitous, compute, storage and bandwidth enabled whole new business models. Content became digital and did not need a physical medium for delivery. The Internet enabled producers, manufactures and developers to connect with and sell to customers, and consumers quickly, cheaply and efficiently. The result as we have all seen is a flat hyper-connected world. Productivity and efficiency have increased and it is now easier and cheaper to get a new idea to market. Innovation continues unabated. Capital too is plentiful, both from VC’s and a growing breed of investors known as Angels.
By 2000 assets allocated to Venture Capital had grown to a peak of over $300 billion (worldwide) managed by over 1,000 venture firms in about 1,800 funds (Venture firms often have multiple funds). Then in 2000, we had the dot com bubble burst and Venture returns took a tumble, as did the NASDAQ, which peaked at 5,132 in early 2000. In 2008 we saw another big correction in the stock market and the beginning of the “great recession”. The first decade of the 21st century (2000 to 2010) has been tough for investors in all sectors; Bonds, Stocks, Real Estate as well as in Venture Capital. As returns fell, venture capital assets shrunk from the peak of $300 billion to about $180 billion and the number of venture firms has dropped from over a 1,000 to just a bit over 794, of which 462 were in the U.S. Venture Capital has done much more than generate returns, it has helped create new products, services and industries that fundamentally changed how we live our daily lives. For example, in the old days to create a major corporation, you would have to have your own manufacturing and your own sales force in the major markets of the world therefore requiring more money additional time to build a $10 million, $100 million or billion dollar business.
In the four decades starting in 1960’s innovations funded by venture capital delivered very impressive amounts of computing horsepower, terabytes of storage and gigabytes of bandwidth all at very low costs. Cheap and ubiquitous, compute, storage and bandwidth enabled whole new business models. Content became digital and did not need a physical medium for delivery. The Internet enabled producers, manufactures and developers to connect with and sell to customers, and consumers quickly, cheaply and efficiently. The result as we have all seen is a flat hyper-connected world. Productivity and efficiency have increased and it is now easier and cheaper to get a new idea to market. Innovation continues unabated. Capital too is plentiful, both from VC’s and a growing breed of investors known as Angels.
Opportunity for Entrepreneur( 1-5 of 10 )
Post your Comment
All form fields are required.
Reader's comments(2)
1:
Good sir, Thanks for guidance. We know to deliver the best. I would like to know if any VC interested in Indian agriculture.
J k Niagam jitendraknigam at gmail
J k Niagam jitendraknigam at gmail
Posted by:Dr J K Nigam - 21 Sep, 2012
Forward this article to your friends & colleague
All form fields are required.