For the first time time in years, it felt like venture capitalists slowed their cadence this summer. Such “summer delays” used to be common as investors took long vacations in August, leading to a general lack of VC activity.
Then the market went crazy for a few years, and such breaks became rarer as, as we read, investors wanted to stay close to their workstations to avoid missing out on a hot deal that could close in hours or days, rather than the traditional ones. weeks and months. The decline in activity that many of us felt is reflected in Q3 data londonbusinessblog.com has analyzed so far.
What about a Q4 comeback?
But the slowdown was tied to a possible rebound in the eyes of many. Our own Rebecca Szkutak wrote in September that some people were anticipating a rebound in venture capital activity in the fourth quarter. The recovery was expected in part due to a “wait and see, but come back later” atmosphere among venture players we’ve spoken to over the past few months.
More than that, it has been claimed that venture capitalists sitting on funds they had in reserve might want to make some deals in the fourth quarter to avoid going to their backers (LPs) and saying: thanks for the management fee; we haven’t done anything with your capital.