tional Venture Capital Association formed Medical Innovation and Competitiveness (MedIC) Coalition. This is an alliance comprised of both venture capital firms and their life sciences portfolio companies. The MedIC Coalition will lobby for policies and regulations that advance U.S. medical innovation and protect the country’s global leadership position in the life sciences industry.

The NVCA and Cambridge Associates today released new VC performance data (through March 31), showing improved short-term returns but continued weakening of 10-year returns. Five-year returns experienced a modest bump, after dropping the last time around.

Overall, 10-year mean VC returns stand at -3.7%, compared to 2.3% for the DJIA and -6.3% for the Nasdaq over the same time period. Five-year returns for VC come in at 4.9%, compared to 3.3% for the DJIA and 3.7% for the Nasdaq. One-year returns (for whatever they’re worth) for VC was 6.5%, compared to 49.6% for the DJIA and 56.9% for the Nasdaq.

You can download all the relevant data after the jump…

Earlier today, the National Venture Capital Association and PricewaterhouseCoopers released investment activity results for the second quarter of the year. The results? VCs invested $6.5 billion in 906 deals — a 34 percent increase in capital and a 22 percent increase in the number of deals compared with the first quarter of the year. It’s [...]

The NVCA and Deloitte today released results of a global VC sentiment survey, which measured opinions of more than 500 global venture capitalists.

Not surprisingly, 90% of U.S. VCs expected to see the number of firms to shrink over the next five years, while most of those in China, India and Brazil expect growth.

Among cited problems in the U.S. were difficulties in achieving successful exits (88%), unfavorable tax policies (59%) and unstable regulatory policy (53%). On the upside, most lauded government-funded R&D efforts and an “improving entrepreneurial environment.”

Cambridge Associates and the National Venture Capital Association today released new VC fund performance data, through the end of Q4 2009.

I haven’t had a chance to examine all of it yet, except to say that short-term performance improved, but 5-year and 10-year performance sagged. Not surprising on that last part, now that 10-year figures no longer include 1999 (and, as such, have moved into negative territory).

Plan to have a bit more on this later this morning. For now, here is the press release and the benchmark report.

Kate Mitchell, a managing partner of Scale Venture Partners, has been elected chair of the National Venture Capital Association’s board of directors. She succeeds Terry McGuire of Polaris Venture Partners. Also joining the board in director capacities are Bruce Evans of Summit Partners, Norm Fogelsong of Institutional Venture Partners, Robert Nelsen of ARCH Venture Partners, Scott Sandell of New Enterprise Associates and Theresia Gouw Ranzetta of Accel Partners.

NVCA president Mark Heesen gave a “state of the VC industry” talk in Chapel Hill last Friday, and included discussion of Chris Dodd’s financial reform.

Specifically, Heesen said he was heartened that the proposal clearly distinguished between “venture capital” and “private equity.”

As we’ve discussed before, however, the Dodd Bill doesn’t actually define either asset class – instead kicking that responsibility over to the SEC. It’s a tricky job, since hybrid firms would almost certainly try to game the nomenclature, in order to “become” whichever type of firm is less regulated. Moreover, enforcement of a firm’s adherence to definitional guidelines would be difficult without all firms agreeing to open up their portfolios to federal scrutiny.

Last month, as Christmas day neared, National Venture Capital Association president Mark Heesen was pacing around his Washington office, worried and wondering what might happen once the Senate voted on a landmark bill to reform the nation’s health care system. “Our major concern was that [the senators] were all exhausted, and they had this trainload [...]

Even though I said I wasn’t surprised by this week’s 2010 venture capital predictions, one item did catch my attention — the slide where 48% of U.S. VCs said they expect more foreign LPs to invest in their funds next year.

VCs are telling the National Venture Capital Association that the percentage of foreign money in their funds has been climbing from 5% to as high as 15% or 20%, said president Mark Heesen. Some LPs are attracted to the U.S. because funds here tend to offer more exposure to early stage startups than European or Asian funds, which are very late stage and more like private equity.

Also, foreign investors are more sophisticated than they used to be — an inevitable outcome of globalization. “They think, if I learn it in the U.S., maybe I can do it in my own geography,” Heesen said.

The National Venture Capital Association’s annual survey of what VCs expect to happen in 2010 could have been written in part by Bill Gurley, the sage of Sand Hill Road. (Once again we link to his August blog post, “What Is Really Happening To The Venture Capital Industry?”)

Venture funds will shrink and the number of firms will shrink, said a majority of the 325 VCs surveyed, although they do expect to invest a few more dollars in more companies.

They also plan to invest more in clean tech and Internet companies along with companies in China and India. They favor later stage investments over seed and early stage — a fact that concerns NVCA President Mark Heesen, who worries about innovation — and they expect exit markets to improve slightly, with more mergers and acquisitions and a few more IPOs.