VC Fundraising on Pace to Exceed $40B for 4th Consecutive Year in North America and Europe

Venture capital firms certainly have no shortage of cash to invest in startups.

PitchBook released its 2017 PE and VC Fundraising report today for North America and Europe. Through July, $27.5 billion has been raised across 165 firms as venture fundraising is on pace to exceed $40 billion for the fourth consecutive year. It’s also approaching the record $51 billion raised last year.

While funds are increasing in average and median size, the number of overall funds is decreasing year-over-year, PitchBook noted. But the decline is being offset by huge funds like NEA’s $3.3 billion New Enterprise Associates 16, the largest VC fund ever.

“Moving into 2017, we expected to see fundraising slow given that both Europe and North America had just experienced near-record fundraising years,” the report notes. “That hasn’t been the case, however, as managers have continued to raise outsized sums of capital.”