2017 Top Year for Venture Capital Since Dot Com Boom

According to a newly released study produced jointly by financial data company PitchBook and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), the U.S. venture capital industry in 2017 finished the strongest it has in decades, with a total of $84 billion invested in more than 8,000 companies — the largest annual amount of capital invested in the entrepreneurial ecosystem since the first Internet boom in the late ‘90s.

Unicorns were major drivers of that momentum, attracting $19.2 billion of the total raised, or 23 percent of the VC capital. Deals of $50 million or larger monopolized VC activity, representing nearly half of total VC deal value, while deals of $1 million or smaller were less than 30 percent. The year also saw a record amount of new venture funds, with 209 new funds closing $32 billion, including the largest VC fund ever raised: New Enterprise Associates’ $3.3 billion vehicle, raised in June of last year.