20: Entrepreneurial Finance and Venture Capitalin 2010. According to the MoneyTree™ Report by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) and the
National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) (based on data from Thomson Reuters), VC funding
in the US increased to $48.3 billion in 2014, accounting for 4356 deals.^2
Outside the US, Australia was one of the largest markets for attracting private equity funding, as can
be seen from 2011 private equity commitments in Table 20.2a. However, as is shown in Table 20.2b,
by 2014 Australia was no longer one of the top five destinations for private equity funding.
TABLE 20.2a PRIVATE EQUITY COMMITMENTS IN 2011This table summarises the total private equity commitments by location outside the US in 2011.
Company nation No. of deals No. of companies Sum of equity invested
(US$ millions)
China 712 667 16,752.0
Canada 862 752 11,967.8
Australia 109 101 11,656.2
Ireland 67 60 11,495.9
France 578 557 8,930.0
United Kingdom 633 586 8,338.3
Other nations 2,370 2,190 40,239.6
Total 5,331 4,913 109,379.7
Source: National Venture Capital Association Yearbook 2012, prepared by Thomson Reuters, p.120.TABLE 20.2b PRIVATE EQUITY COMMITMENTS IN 2014This table summarises the total private equity commitments by location outside the US in 2014.
Private equity commitments outside of the United States in 2014
Fund world location Number of funds Amount raised in range (US$ millions)
Europe 188 95,007.83
Asia 35 143,346.48
Other regions 82 18,820.08
Total 405 157,174.39
Source: National Venture Capital Association Yearbook 2015, prepared by Thomson Reuters, p.130.The following charts (in Figure 20.1) show funds raised by the Australian industry over the past
10 years. They clearly demonstrate that there was a dramatic reduction in fund-raising ability following
the global financial crisis and credit crunch that started in 2007. This had a lagged, knock-on effect,
resulting in a drastic reduction in the number of new funds across the industry. There was a significant
upturn in activity in FY2012. This stalled in the next two years, but improved dramatically in FY2015,
particularly in the VC sector which raised more capital than was raised in FY2007 – prior to the global
financial crisis. As can be seen from the two charts, the Australian VC market is significantly smaller than
the later stage market, accounting for only 12.0% of the funds raised in FY2015. The total funds raised in
FY2015 were $3.1 billion ($368 million was raised by VC funds and $2.7 billion was raised by PE funds).
2 Sourced from http://nvca.org/pressreleases/annual-venture-capital-investment-tops-48-billion-2014-reaching-highest-level-decade-according-
moneytree-report/, accessed 22 January 2015.