[LINK] Net Investment Smashes Records

[Bernard Robertson-Dunn]

<brd>
Just look at what we Australians are competing with!!!!!
In the USA, in the first half of 1999, 565 Net startups with an
average investment of greater than US$10 million.
<\brd>

The Industry Standard,
3 August 99
http://www.thestandard.com/articles/display/0,1449,5733,00.html?home.tf

Net Investment Smashes Records

By Maryann Jones Thompson

It doesn't look like the sketchy success of Net stocks and
initial public offerings has scared off many venture capitalists:
New data shows more dollars are flowing into Net startups than
ever before.

During the first half of this year, 565 Net startups received a
record $6.3 billion - more than the $5.7 billion raised during
the entire year of 1998, and more than 1997 and 1996 combined,
reports San Francisco-based venture-capital researcher
VentureOne.

In the second quarter of this year alone, Internet venture
funding jumped 53 percent from the $2.5 billion raised in the
first quarter to $3.8 billion, a 170 percent increase over the
year-ago second quarter.

According to the VentureOne, Internet firms are increasingly
dominating the growing pool of U.S. venture funds. During 1995, a
total of $6.3 billion was invested into U.S. startups, and Net
firms garnered 15 percent of the total. Three years later,
startup funding had increased to $13 billion, with some 44
percent of the dollars going to the Web. And during the first
half of this year, Internet startups grabbed 55 percent of the
record $11.4 billion invested overall in the United States.

"We are seeing lots of money being raised in a very short period
of time," says Rolf Selvig, director of business development at
VentureOne. "These venture-backed companies are replacing dollars
for time, raising money to fund acquisitions and create
combinations that will achieve scale as quickly as possible."

Business-to-business services firms are driving Net investment,
snagging $2.2 billion of the $6.3 billion raised during the first
half. Internet-related software and database companies garnered
$1.5 billion, and e-commerce ventures received $1.1 billion.
Infrastructure companies and ISPs accounted for the remainder of
the total.

VIA Networks topped the list of Net deals during the first half
of this year with $128 million in funding. Webvan followed with a
$120 million round, while JuniorNet placed third with $70
million.

-- 
On leadership:

"True leadership must be for the benefit of the followers,
not the enrichment of the leaders. In combat, officers eat last.

Most people in big companies today are administered, not led.
They are treated as personnel, not people."
-- Robert Townsend - of "Up the Organisation" fame

Regards
brd

Bernard Robertson-Dunn
Canberra Australia
brd@dynamite.com.au