Scope. This section traces how venture capital grew from Georges Doriot's American Research and Development (1946) into an asset class that invested ~$339bn in US companies in 2025 (KPMG Venture Pulse / PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor, Q4 2025, reported) and ~$500bn+ globally (PitchBook, 2025 preliminary, reported). It covers the people, laws, technologies and cycles that shaped it, and the lessons each era taught.
What the study covers
- 1The arc in one table
- 2Origins (1946–1968)
- 3Silicon Valley partnerships (1969–1979)
- 4Institutionalisation (1978–1989)
- 5The internet boom (1990–2000)
- 6Rebuild and Web 2.0 (2001–2008)
- 7Mobile, cloud and the seed explosion (2008–2016)
- 8Mega-funds and the 2021 peak (2016–2021)
- 9The reset (2022–2023)
- 10The AI super-cycle (2023–2026)
- 11Recurring patterns across 80 years
- 12Pitfalls in reading VC history
- 13How an expert thinks about it