New York, New York Beckons VCs, and They’re Hearing the Siren Call

As Frank Sinatra crooned: “I want to be a part of it. New York, New York. I want to wake up in that city. That doesn’t sleep. And find I’m king of the hill. Top of the heap.”

Sinatra could have sung his number in chorus with SIlicon Valley VCs. As Mark Boslet reported in the March 2011 issue of Venture Capital Journal, nearly every top firm on Sand Hill Road is sending key partners to New York to seek introductions and check out the lay of the land.

Canaan Partners and Accel Partners recently opened offices in New York. Meanwhile, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Sequoia Capital, Mohr Davidow Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Mayfield Fund and Lightspeed Venture Partners are all booking cross-country flights, drawn by the bright lights of Broadway and the rest of the city.

The New York scene is hot. All told in 2010, $1.87 billion went into 350 New York deals, putting the region ahead of Boston (313 deals) and trailing only the greater Silicon Valley metro areas of San Jose and San Francisco/Berkeley, according to the MoneyTree Survey from the National Venture Capital Association and PricewaterhouseCoopers, based on data from Thomson Reuters (publisher of peHUB).

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And if you want to chime in on the merits of New York or other VC hotspot, send an email to VCJ Editor-in-Charge Alastair Goldfisher at alastair.goldfisher@thomsonreuters.com.