Venture capital firms raised $28.2B last year, down from $31.1B in 2014; number of VC funds closed decreased 13% from 2014 to 2015
But In Fewer Ventures
Context & Ripple Effects
The 2015 numbers land one year after venture funds raised $29.8B in 2014 — a 69% jump over 2013 and the most since 2007 ([[a:825364]]). Today's report marks the turn: dollars slipped to $28.2B and the number of funds closed fell 13%, the first pause in the post-crisis fundraising surge.
The wider corpus shows this rhythm repeating at growing amplitude: deployment peaked at $79B in 2015 before dropping to $69B across 7,350 companies in 2016 ([[a:915661]]), 2020 set a record $130B even as deal counts fell for a second straight year ([[a:1160420]]), and by late 2022 Q4 fundraising had sunk to its lowest since 2013 ([[a:836355]]).
First-order effects
- LPs had 13% fewer funds to allocate into, and the $2.9B year-over-year decline meant less fresh committed capital entering GPs' deployment pipelines for 2016.
- GPs closing vehicles in 2015 were raising against the tail of 2014's banner window, so funds that missed the earlier vintage faced a market already pulling back.
Second-order effects
- Deployment tracked the thinner 2015 vintage with a lag: 2016 investing fell from the $79B peak to $69B across 7,350 companies, confirming fundraising as the leading indicator.
- Because dollars fell 9% while fund count fell 13%, average fund size grew — capital consolidating into fewer, larger vehicles rather than leaving the asset class evenly.
Third-order effects
- The cycle recurs at larger scale: 2020's record $130B arrived on a shrinking deal count, and the 2022–23 contraction cut US investing roughly in half with angel and seed deals falling hardest — each wave leaving fewer funds writing larger checks into fewer deals.
- If the pattern holds, VC fundraising settles into a structure of concentrated mega-funds atop a thinning seed layer, with LP commitments swinging between boom vintages and drought years rather than growing steadily.
The trend: Venture fundraising moves in multi-year waves in which dollar totals swing sharply while fund counts ratchet downward, steadily concentrating capital into fewer, larger vehicles.