Some time ago I listened to this lecture by Spencer Ante, on his book Creative Capital, and have been meaning to blog about it.
Q: When did the business model for VC take shape? In other words, when did people become convinced that money should be pooled specifically to invest in small companies developing products based on new technology? What were the first VC funds?
A: Ante claims the first VC fund was Georges Doriot's ARDC founded in 1946. Judging from the size of funds raised even 40 years later, it took a long time for investors controlling large pools of money (i.e., pension funds, endowments) to become convinced about the model.
(tags: vc)