O'Brien: Clouds are gathering over the venture capital industry by Chris O'Brien

The past couple of weeks brought another round of startup funding data that reinforced my belief that the venture capital industry is staring into the abyss.

The money coming in to VC firms, and the money going out, were both bleak. It's the latest clue that a massive shakeout looms for a VC industry that remains bloated from the dot-com boom days.

€34 million Invested by Enterprise Ireland Partnership Funds in 2008

Today (Friday 24th July 2009) Feargal Ó Móráin, Director of Corporate and Investment Services at Enterprise Ireland, launched the Enterprise Ireland Seed and Venture Capital report for 2008. In 2008, Enterprise Ireland partnership funds made 104 investments worth €34 million. These investments are spread across all sectors, with a particularly strong focus on communications, life sciences and software. Investments were made in both innovative start up and expanding companies spread throughout the regions. This brings total investment made under all three Enterprise Ireland supported seed and venture capital programmes to €459 million at end 2008.

Some companies and entrepreneurs are great at innovation.  Some suck at it.

Kevin Ryan is the former CEO of DoubleClick and Founder/Chairman of Gilt Groupe (and The Business Insider).  In this clip, Kevin shares his top three secrets to successful innovation.

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In Malta, a landmark on the road to innovation by Charles E. Schumer

The global economic downturn has many looking to narrow their vision and protect their local interests, yet the interconnectedness of the problems we face today points in the opposite direction. We need alternative fuel cars, smart oil fields and better trading platforms. The economy will improve, but first America's model for innovation needs new, better and more sustainable ideas.

Do Internet Start-Ups Really Need Venture Capital?

With software-development tools readily available – and with seemingly insatiable demand among consumers for easy-to-use applications for smartphones – it continues to be easier, and cheaper, to start up an Internet or software business.

At the same time, global financial troubles have made it harder than ever for new companies to get funding from venture capitalists – who are, in turn, having trouble raising money from their limited partners.

Find Funding in Your Backyard by, Lydia Dishman

Creating a must-have product for a hot market is every entrepreneur's dream. Frank Greer had it. The president and CEO of Zipit Wireless developed a nifty little device with embedded technology to allow users to communicate via SMS texting without using a cell phone or a computer. Teens and tweens no longer needed to compete for time on the family computer to IM friends, nor did their parents have to worry about spilling over the texting limits of their cell phone plans.

International venture capital plummets 63 percent in Q2 by Newsmedian Blog

Overseas markets saw a sharp drop in venture capital investing in the second quarter, falling 63 percent since last year to $1.46 billion across 250 deals — the lowest it has been for six years, according to Dow Jones VentureSource. To put this into stark context, $5.27 billion was invested in 595 deals in the U.S. during the same time period.

The data VentureSource collected comes from Canada, Israel, China, India and Europe. The second quarter’s investment total is lower than the $1.99 billion distributed in the first quarter — a typically slow time for the market. And it’s much lower than last year’s second quarter’s figures: $3.95 billion invested across 452 deals.

Innovation Isn't Just for Startups by Rick Wartzman

We can all picture the scene: A couple of guys toiling away in a cluttered garage, perfecting the next innovation that will shake an entire industry. Meanwhile, the big corporate players in the market stand oblivious—fat, dumb, happy, and too bogged down by bureaucracy and conservatism to be innovative themselves.

It's a great image—one that has long persisted. There's just one problem with it: It's false. "The all but universal belief that large businesses do not and cannot innovate is not even a half-truth," Peter Drucker wrote in his 1985 classic Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

Federal grant helps UF create Florida Innovation Hub

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The federal Economic Development Administration has awarded the University of Florida an $8.2 million grant to help create the Florida Innovation Hub at UF, a facility officials describe as a “super incubator.”

The 45,000-square-foot facility, slated to be built on what is now a parking lot at Shands AGH, will nurture start-up companies in much the same way as the Sid Martin Biotech Incubator in Alachua. But the Florida Innovation Hub will also become home to the university’s main commercialization efforts. The building is scheduled for completion by December 2011.

WSJ: Europe Falls Behind Silicon Valley In VC Deal Flow

Instead, it’s because Europe’s venture capital scene is rapidly shrinking. Some firms have recoiled or pulled out of venture capital completely, like Europe’s largest investor, 3i Group, did this year to focus solely on growth equity and buyouts.

In the second quarter, Europe’s deals fell for the fourth consecutive quarter to 156, or 24% below the first quarter, while investment dropped 31% quarter-to-quarter to EUR619.7 million ($880.6 million), less than half the amount in the San Francisco Bay area.

From Nobels to the best T-shirt prize? by Wendy @ MaRS

McKinsey & Company’s recently published report “Using prizes to spur innovation” (McKinsey Quarterly - July 2009) focuses on the increased use of philanthropic dollars to fund prizes that solve problems, in some cases some very large problems.

A Peek Inside the ExxonMobil/Craig Venter Algae Project

I nudged the wonderful Jane Van Ryan at the API last week shortly after the press release came out about ExxonMobil and Craig Venter’s SGI setting out with $600 million to try to get algae sourced oils into the market. Even at ExxonMobil, $600 million is a sizeable amount of money, with a certain amount of explaining to be done with the shareholders. So to sharpen up the points I’ve been contacted by ExxonMobil to see what questions might get answered. Not all of them to be sure, proprietary things are going to get in the way.

How Should Government Spur Small-Business Innovation? by Robb Mendelbaum

With health care reform and economic recovery sucking up so much of what little oxygen circulates in Washington, you’ll have to forgive The Agenda for only now turning to the Small Business Innovation Research program, which is set to expire on July 31 unless Congress acts to reauthorize it.

Last week, the Senate did its part, but its version of S.B.I.R. reauthorization is much different from the one the House passed on July 8. Now Congress faces the difficult task of reconciling two visions of how the government should harness the power of small firms to innovate, and the competing interests are choosing sides. The bills pit companies with venture funding against those without it — and research institutions against them both.

Administration Committed to Innovation by Alexandra Cheney

Amid tumbling banks and bankrupt companies, small businesses may have cause for celebration. The Senate reauthorized the Small Business Administration's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs last Wednesday. In the House, Congressman David Wu (D-OR) shepherded the bill through, with a resounding 386-41 vote.

The bill will now head to the conference committee, where differences between the House and Senate bills will get ironed out, says Edsel Brown, assistant director for the Office of Technology at SBA. Congress has until the July 31to conference the bill. If the revision passes, this legislation will reauthorize the programs for eight years as well as add some much necessary fixes. One major adjustment includes allowing small businesses backed by venture capitalists to participate in the programs.

Administration Committed to Innovation by Alexandra Cheney

Amid tumbling banks and bankrupt companies, small businesses may have cause for celebration. The Senate reauthorized the Small Business Administration's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs last Wednesday. In the House, Congressman David Wu (D-OR) shepherded the bill through, with a resounding 386-41 vote.

The bill will now head to the conference committee, where differences between the House and Senate bills will get ironed out, says Edsel Brown, assistant director for the Office of Technology at SBA. Congress has until the July 31to conference the bill. If the revision passes, this legislation will reauthorize the programs for eight years as well as add some much necessary fixes. One major adjustment includes allowing small businesses backed by venture capitalists to participate in the programs.

How Should Government Spur Small-Business Innovation? by Robb Mendelbaum

With health care reform and economic recovery sucking up so much of what little oxygen circulates in Washington, you’ll have to forgive The Agenda for only now turning to the Small Business Innovation Research program, which is set to expire on July 31 unless Congress acts to reauthorize it.

Last week, the Senate did its part, but its version of S.B.I.R. reauthorization is much different from the one the House passed on July 8. Now Congress faces the difficult task of reconciling two visions of how the government should harness the power of small firms to innovate, and the competing interests are choosing sides. The bills pit companies with venture funding against those without it — and research institutions against them both.

UNH Center For Venture Research: Angel Investors, VCs Look At IPOs Differently

DURHAM, N.H. - New research from the Center for Venture Research at the University of New Hampshire shows substantial differences in how angel investors and venture capitalists approach initial public offerings, a finding that entrepreneurs should consider when selecting early investors.

Got Science? We Do, But Things Are Very Different Forty Years After Apollo by Chris Mooney

Seeing a moonscape on the cover of Time magazine as I walked through Chicago’s O’Hare airport this morning cemented for me the fact that we’re in a ripe moment for introspection about the place of science in U.S. society. It’s not just a marker-in-time like Monday’s 40-year anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing and Neil Armstrong’s one small step. It’s the bombardment of new survey data from Pew and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, showing the vast gap between science and the public. It’s the ongoing bloodletting in the science blogosphere over how we should deal with the sensitive topic of America’s religiosity. It’s the continual strangulation of science journalism in the traditional media.

Venture capital rebounds slightly: Is Startup Nation back? by Alex Salkever

According to the MoneyTree Report from PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), based on data provided by Thomson Reuters, venture capitalists invested $3.7 billion in 612 deals during the quarter. That constitutes a dollar increase in investment activity of 15 percent over the same period last year. However, the number are likely skewed upwards by a handful of very large deals in the life sciences sector and on a normalized basis VC fundings likely would not show as much improvement.

Venture capital: Back to the future by Richard Waters