• VentureBeat, Monday, October 12, 2009 1:40 PM

This is shaping up to be a pretty bleak year for venture capitalists, according to new data from Thomson Reuters and the National Venture Capital Association. Just 17 VC firms raised new funds in the third quarter of 2009 -- the smallest number of number of firms in any quarter since the third quarter of 1994.

To be exact, only $1.6 billion was raised by the 17 firms, which is the lowest level of dollars committed since the first quarter of 2003 when $938 million was raised. While venture capital firms typically raise money every three or four years, and so a single quarter represents only a snapshot, the historically low number of firms raising money shows just how much of a crunch the industry is in right now.

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