Keeping Track: venture-capital flow

Silicon Valley remains a magnet for start-up funds

Providers of venture capital started the decade with a bang, disbursing more than $103 billion in 2000, almost twice the amount invested in 1999.

Silicon Valley remains a magnet for start-up funds

Providers of venture capital started the decade with a bang, disbursing more than $103 billion in 2000, almost twice the amount invested in 1999.

Web-related firms claimed about three-quarters of all funds. Where will the money flow next?

Expect no big changes in the sectors, or regions, that receive funds, says Jeanne Metzger, spokeswoman for the National Venture Capital Association, though she expects the communications (think wireless) and life-sciences sectors (biotech and genetics) to challenge faltering dotcoms. Ms. Metzger expects a slowing in funding overall, however, calling 2000's huge total "an anomaly."

(c) Copyright 2001. The Christian Science Monitor