Atlas Venture has closed its eighth fund, which comes in at $283 million. The bad news is Fund VIII is smaller than Fund VII ($385 million) and comes in well below their original target of $400 million. But if there is a silver lining, it is that there are still VC houses out there raising any funds at all in this car crash of an economy. Plus the leaner, meaner fund will necessarily have to look at at early stage startups as a result.
The company is spinning the reduced fund as a positive thing, of course. “The new fund is the right size for our early-stage focus and organisational structure,” said Jean-Francois Formela, partner.
Amongst VCs themselves some will snipe about the “size” of each-other’s fund, but frankly if a startup secures backing, who cares. One of the go-to guy for tech startups in particular will therefore be the same guy as before: Fred Destin, a VC who also doesn’t mind firing off a few opinions on his blog now and again.
