自从网络运送服务商Kozmo.com倒闭以来，风险投资家们就在讨论行业重组。最新数据显示，行业的颓势比人们此前想象的更严峻，目前活跃在科技行业的风险投资公司已经不足一百家。

    数据来自“基金中的基金”管理公司Flag Capital。日前，风险资本家马克•苏斯特在一次会议演示中引用了这些数据。苏斯特演示的幻灯片如下：

    Venture capitalists have been talking about an industry shakeout since Kozmo.com delivered its last box of doughnuts. New data suggests the decline has been more severe than previously thought, finding fewer than 100 active U.S. VC firms in the technology sector.

    The numbers come from fund-of-funds manager Flag Capital, and recently were cited in a conference presentation by venture capitalist Mark Suster. Here was Suster's slide:

    重要的是，Flag公司的数据剔除了那些不再进行新投资的“僵尸”风险投资基金。只有那些一年内至少进行了4笔新投资（且在严格意义上，部署资金总额不少于400万美元）的公司，才会被Flag定义为“活跃”公司。

    Flag副总裁柯尔斯顿•莫林称：“我们的初衷是想了解一下到底有多少活跃风险投资。一些人将‘活跃’定义为过去8年至少有过一笔投资，不过我们发现如果这样算的话，现在的活跃风投可谓多如牛毛。于是我们特意排除了追加投资，以便更好地了解那些真正在投资新项目的公司，而不是那些勉力维持——追加投资纯粹是为了避免股权被稀释（并寄希望于发生点什么事，使其能募集后期基金）的公司。有趣的是，如果回过头看看2000年，如今的活跃风投数量要比那时少了很多。”

    同时，Flag的数据还表明，2010至2012年间，“活跃”风投公司的数量略有回升，或许是因为在此期间，不少以前的天使投资人纷纷成立了小型的风投基金。（财富中文网）

    译者：项航

    What's important about Flag's data is that it excludes the legions of "zombie" venture capital funds that no longer make new investments. It does so by qualifying "active" firms made a minimum of four new investments over the course of a year (and technically deployed at least $4 million total).

    "The original intent of the exercise was to try to get a sense of how many firms are truly active," explains Kirsten Morin, a vice president with Flag. "Others define 'active' as those firms that have raised a fund in the last eight years, but as we look around it doesn't feel as though there are [hundreds] of active firms today. We specifically excluded follow-on investments to try to gain a better understanding of those firms actually deploying fresh capital versus those just running on fumes -- in many cases only deploying capital in follow-ons to avoid dilution (and, of course, with the hope that something would break out and propel them to a successor fund). Interestingly, if you look back to 2000, the shakeout in active firms by that definition actually happened pretty quickly."

    Flag's data also suggests a modest comeback between 2010 and 2012, perhaps owing to the rise of micro-VC funds by investors who previously were acting as individual angels.