The mirage of dry powder

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Are VCs really sitting on record amounts of cash waiting to be deployed into new startups? I wish. But if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. — Anna

Record levels, but…

A recent guest post on TechCrunch+ wondered whether “record levels of dry powder [will] trigger a delayed explosion of startup investment.” The question relied on a postulate: That venture capitalists have raised plenty of funding that remains to be deployed.

The idea that dry powder has reached record levels is commonly shared, and it is backed by data.