If you're sizing the emerging manager market, the first number you'll find in industry fundraising data is a US first-time fund count that fell sharply from the 2021 peak into 2024. On paper, new fund formation looked like it shrank by roughly three quarters in three years. That's the number most decks quote.
Published first-time fund counts only include the funds that report to industry datasets, and most new managers never report, so those counts miss most of the new firms that launch each year. We run the training program that launches a large share of those new firms, so our own launch data fills part of the gap.
How many new VC funds are launched each year?
Nobody publishes a complete global count. The best-known industry figure covers first-time US funds that report a close, and it sits in the low hundreds for a recent year, while VC Lab alone has launched more than 1,000 firms since 2020.
Those two numbers can't be lined up against each other. One is a US count of funds that show up in an institutional dataset. The other is a global count of firms that came through one training program.
Here's the scale from our side. More than 1,000 firms have launched through VC Lab since 2020, which works out to well over a hundred launches a year on average, and Decile Group's stated goal for 2026 is 250 funds launched in a single year. Recent cohorts have drawn thousands of applications each. Those are firms from one program, so the true worldwide number of new managers each year is higher than either figure.
How many first-time venture funds were raised in 2024?
According to widely cited industry fundraising data, first-time US fund closes in a recent year sat in the low hundreds, well below the 2021 peak.
The same industry sources show most US venture dollars concentrating in established firms, with emerging managers (often defined as firms with fewer than four funds) taking a much smaller share of reported capital. The average reported first-time US fund in those datasets runs around $50MM, which is several times the size of a typical new fund in our data.
Why do industry reports undercount new VC funds?
Because standard industry datasets are built from the funds they can see, and funds from new managers mostly aren't among them. Industry datasets rely on manager surveys and voluntary reporting, and most new managers never fill one out.
So the published counts describe the top of the market in detail and undercount what's underneath it. A new firm can raise, close and start investing without ever becoming a row in one of those datasets.
They count reported funds, and new managers rarely report
This is the main reason the counts miss new firms. A fund enters an industry dataset when its manager answers a survey, reports a close voluntarily or gets press coverage that the data team picks up. If none of that happens, the fund isn't counted, however real its LPs and its portfolio are.
Established firms report because their institutional LPs, consultants and the press expect it. A new manager who closes a first fund with individual LPs and angels has no reason to fill out a survey, so that fund often never appears in the statistics.
We wrote about the problem in The VC Data Problem: many fund managers simply don't report, so the picture is incomplete by design.
They're mostly US-only
That industry first-time count is a US number. 56% of the GPs who've come through VC Lab are international. A new fund in Lagos, São Paulo or Jakarta won't show up in a US first-time fund count, however healthy the fund may be.
They skew toward larger funds
That roughly $50MM average first-time fund in the US data is several times the size of a typical new fund in our data. Most of those funds sit below the size where an institutional database would pick them up.
They measure capital, which hides the count
When 30 firms take 68% of the dollars, any chart built on dollars will tell a story about the biggest firms. A hundred new $5MM funds adds $500MM, which barely moves a $76B year, even though it's a hundred new firms writing checks into startups.
How much of the new fund market does Decile Group see?
By firm count, a large share of the new managers we can see. VC Lab is the largest venture capital accelerator in the world by number of firms launched, and Decile Hub had 1,200+ firms using it monthly at the end of 2025.
What we won't do is divide our global launch count by a US-only industry first-time fund count and call that a market share. Those are two different populations, and the answer would mean nothing.
Decile Hub also shows us how firms operate after they launch, as agents handle the routine work across deal flow, LP relationships and reporting.
And there's a reason we see this much of it. VC Lab is free training, and it works as Decile Group's R&D center. Everything Decile builds for running a firm is built for emerging VCs, with emerging VCs, and the goal is to get a manager from first close through Fund III.
What do Decile Group's own fund numbers count?
They count different things, so they don't match each other. Here's what each Decile Group number on this page means:
- 1,000+ firms launched: venture firms that launched through VC Lab since 2020.
- 1,200+ firms on Decile Hub: firms using Decile Hub each month at the end of 2025.
- 250 funds in 2026: Decile Group's stated launch goal for the year, which is a target rather than a count.
- Funds Decile operates: the funds Decile runs operations for through Start Fund and Decile Partners, a separate and smaller count, since a firm that launched through VC Lab isn't automatically a fund Decile operates.
How big is the typical first VC fund?
Much smaller than the industry averages suggest. The roughly $50MM average first-time US fund in industry data is several times the size of a typical new fund in our data, and new firms usually start with individuals and angels before institutions come in.
Our Year End 2025 report, which analyzed over 850 funds launched through VC Lab, shows who backs those first funds. The reports and our data are describing two different tiers of the same market, which is the core of the undercount.
Where are new venture funds being launched?
Across dozens of countries. 56% of the GPs who've come through VC Lab are based outside the United States.
That matters for market sizing. A US-only number will always miss the fastest-growing part of new fund formation if that growth is happening in other countries.
What are new VC funds investing in?
AI is the biggest single category, most are at seed, and almost all of them have a specialist thesis. AI and agentic systems funds made up 19.3% of all emerging funds in 2025, the largest single sector, according to the Cohort 23 data.
Specialists have taken over. Generalists fell from 22% of new funds in 2020 to 5% in Q1 2026, and about 89% of funds receiving commitments in H1 2026 were specialists. The detail is in our generalist vs specialist data.
Who is launching new venture capital funds?
Increasingly, people from outside traditional venture. According to our fund benchmarks guide:
- Solo GPs: 61% of new firms in VC Lab cohorts, and the Cohort 23 post puts the solo share at 65% across the last three cohorts.
- Younger managers: under-40 managers make up 38%, up from 25%.
- Women GPs: 28% of VC Lab GPs are women.
So the person launching a firm today is often an operator, an angel or a domain expert turning a track record of personal checks into a fund. That's a profile the big datasets weren't built around.
Is the emerging manager market growing or shrinking?
By count, our data shows it growing. The published reports show dollars concentrating at the top, and those reports mostly don't see the new firms.
Both things are true at once. Established firms took the large majority of reported US venture dollars in recent industry data. If you only follow reported dollars, the emerging market looks like it's shrinking.
But our emerging manager performance data, built on 1,000+ PACTs, 1,000+ LPAs and 900+ funds, shows something else. Four consecutive months in the first half of 2026 each ranked among the top five fundraising months of the last four years, and each ran between 1.2x and 2.2x the volume of the same month in 2025.
One caveat matters here. Our data covers funds that came through VC Lab, so it's the part of the market we can see best. It isn't a census of every new fund in the world, and nobody has one.
Frequently asked questions about new VC funds
How many VC funds are there in the world?
No public census counts every active fund globally. In the US alone, industry fundraising data counts a few hundred venture funds closing in a recent year, and that figure leaves out many funds from new managers that never report. VC Lab has launched more than 1,000 firms since 2020, which gives a sense of how much sits outside US counts.
How many first-time VC funds were raised in 2025?
We haven't seen a full-year 2025 number we'd stand behind yet. What we can say is that, inside VC Lab, four consecutive months in the first half of 2026 ranked among the top five fundraising months of the last four years.
What is the emerging manager market size?
By reported capital, emerging managers (firms with fewer than four funds) take a minority of US venture dollars in recent industry data. By count, the market's much bigger than those figures suggest, because standard industry datasets mostly don't see funds from new managers, and most international funds don't appear in US industry data at all.
Do industry VC reports count funds from new managers?
Mostly not. They're built from funds that report and get covered, and funds from new managers often don't appear, so the published counts undercount them.
What counts as an emerging manager in venture capital?
Industry datasets often define an emerging manager as a firm with fewer than four funds. VC Lab is free training for managers launching a new firm, and our Emerging Institute works with managers raising Fund II to IV.
Is first-time VC fundraising really down?
In the reported dollar figures, yes, because industry data shows first-time US fundraising well below the 2021 peak as LP capital concentrated in the largest established firms. But dollars and fund counts tell different stories, and the new firms that make up most launches are mostly missing from those totals. In our own data, the first half of 2026 had four of the top five fundraising months of the last four years.
For more, read our case studies, browse our guides for step-by-step help on launching and running a fund, and follow program updates in our news.
This article is for educational purposes only and isn't investment advice.
Launch your firm with VC Lab
If you're preparing to launch a venture firm, apply to VC Lab, Decile Group's free 14-week training program, where you'll build your thesis, your LP pipeline and your first close alongside a community of 1,000+ investors in over 88 countries. Cohort 23 starts on Thursday, January 14, 2027, and the application asks for your thesis, your network and the reasons you're the right person to run the fund. Graduates can launch on Start Fund, hand operations to Decile Partners and run the firm on Decile Hub, the agentic operating system for a VC firm.