Investment in US venture-backed companies reached $15.7 billion in the first quarter of 2015, according to data provided by Dow Jones VentureSource and quoted in today's WSJ.com article "Startup Funding Hits 15-Year High While Valuations Set Record."  A few highlights from the article:

• The $15.7 billion invested in 1Q2015 is up from the $15.6 billion invested in 4Q2014 and up from $12.4 billion invested in 1Q2014.
• Venture-backed companies had the highest median valuations on record during the first quarter.
• The largest financing in the quarter was a $1 billion round by SpaceX.
• There were 12 venture-backed IPOs in 1Q2015, down from 23 IPOs in 4Q2014.
• M&A was down in 1Q2015, with 104 deals in the quarter, down from 109 in 4Q2014, and the amount paid in 1Q2015 was down a whopping 71%, at $9.9 billion, compared to the $33.8 billion paid in 4Q2014.

Link to article: 
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2015/04/20/startup-funding-hits-15-year-high-while-valuations-set-record/

San Francisco's South Park neighborhood is centered by a beautiful park surrounded by Victorian homes.  Over the past several years, there has been an influx of venture capital firms to the neighborhood.  The Re/Code article "Has South Park Finally Become the New Sand Hill Road?" takes a look at this phenomenon.  But it's not just South Park - venture capital firms are either headquartered or opening offices all over San Francisco.  San Francisco is also home to many venture-backed companies, including Twitter, Uber, and more.  San Francisco has become the new epicenter of technology venture.

Link: http://recode.net/2015/04/13/has-south-park-finally-become-the-new-sand-hill-road/

Scott Kupor, Managing Partner of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, has an interesting blog post "What's Holding Tech M&A Back?" that's worth a read.  In the post, Kupor asserts that only 10% of tech mergers & acquisitions have been "growth" transactions - deals "involving rapidly expanding, venture-financed private companies or modern software-as-a-service providers."  Worse, 40% of this deal volume has been by five acquirers - Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Oracle and SAP.

This paucity of growth transactions is due to two main factors: (1) venture-backed companies are staying private longer due to the significant availability of private capital available to these companies; and (2) public companies are hamstrung due to activist investors, which are demanding actions like stock buybacks, dividend distributions and breakups - short-term actions to books stock price - at the expense of actions that enhance long term shareholder value such as investing in R&D or growth-oriented acquisitions.

It's a thought-provoking piece that's worth a read.

Link to blog post: http://a16z.com/2015/04/10/whats-holding-tech-ma-back/

Fortune's Dan Primack interviewed Marc Andreessen the other day, and the ensuing article "Brainstorming with Marc Andreessen" makes for a good read.  The title is telling, as they cover a lot of different topics, from why M&A is down, why companies really need to be thoughtful about going public, whether tech is in a bubble.and how innovation is disrupting healthcare and education in a positive way.  It's a good read.

Link to the article:
http://fortune.com/2015/04/10/brainstorming-with-marc-andreessen/