The reason we are confident that the comparative decline in the use of the GNU GPL family of licenses and the increasing significance of complementary vendors in relation to funding for open source software-related vendors will continue is due to the analysis of our database of more than 400 open source software-related vendors, past and [...]

One of the favourite blog topics on CAOS Theory blog over the years has been our quarterly and annual updates on venture capital funding for open source-related businesses, based on our database of over 600 funding deals since January 1997 involving nearly 250 companies, and over $4.8bn. There are still a few days left for [...]

451 Research has today published a report looking at the funding being invested in Apache Hadoop- and NoSQL database-related vendors. The full report is available to clients, but non-clients can find a snapshot of the report, along with a graphic representation of the recent up-tick in funding, over at our Too Much Information blog.

I tweeted last week that VC funding for open source related vendors was up 95% in Q3, driving by significant investment in ‘big data’ related vendors. In calculating that percentage I had overlooked an important deal, however: one that re-writes the record books and raises existential questions about investment in ‘open source related vendors’. There [...]

Venture capital funding for open source software-related vendors declined 32% in the first quarter. According to our preliminary figures, OSS-related vendors raised $96.9m in Q2, compared to $141.5m a year ago. There were 15 deals in the quarter, 14 with a disclosed deal size, resulting in an average deal size of $6.9m. That compared with [...]

Venture capital funding for open source software-related vendors declined 14% in the first quarter. According to our preliminary figures, OSS-related vendors raised $79.8m in Q1, compared to $92.5m a year ago. There were 13 deals in the quarter, 12 with a disclosed deal size, resulting in an average deal size of $6.6m. That compared with [...]

When the figures for Q3 showed venture capital funding for open source software-related vendors declined 38% in the third quarter I all-but abandoned my prediction that venture funding in 2010 would match the levels seen in 2009. At that stage it looked like we would have to see a rapid increase in funding in the [...]

Venture capital funding for open source software-related vendors fell 38% in the third quarter, following three consecutive quarters of positive growth. UPDATE – To put this is some sort of perspective, Venture Beat reports that Q3 was the lowest quarter for VC investments in any field since 2Q09 – UPDATE According to our preliminary figures, [...]

Venture capital funding for open source software-related vendors increased 11.5% in the second quarter, the third consecutive quarter of positive growth following a 6% rise in 4Q09 and a 38% increase in 1Q10. According to our preliminary figures, OSS-related vendors raise $141.7m in Q2, compared to $127.1m a year ago. There were 21 deals in [...]

Last week Glyn Moody advised open source specialist start-ups to give up on the idea of ever hitting the $1bn revenue barrier. Basing his argument on an observation made by Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst, Glyn argued that: “all other open source companies really need to stop chasing that $1 billion dream – the idea [...]

On Thursday, June 3 at 12pm ET we will be holding a webinar to share some of the findings from our recent report ‘Open to Investment, 2010.’ The report is available here, while a summary of the statistics is here. The webinar will contain analysis of venture funding in open-source-related vendors in 2009 based on [...]

We reported last week that VC funding for OSS-related vendors fell 37% in 2009 to $375.4m. We noted at the time that the decline was not actually as steep as I or others had predicted. Another reason we weren’t overly negative about the 2009 figure was that we knew the figures for the first quarter [...]

The latest report from the 451 Group’s CAOS (commercial adoption of open source) practice is now available, presenting an analysis of venture capital funding for open source software-related vendors in 2009. Some of the key statistics are as follows: As you can see, VC funding for OSS-related vendors was down considerably in 2009, as predicted. [...]

Jay recently speculated, and I agreed, that we may be starting to see a return to support and other services, rather than commercial code and licensing, as the preferred mode to monetize open source. The shift is related to, although not dependent upon, a predicted move away from vendor-dominated open source projects towards vendor-dominated open [...]

Dana Blankenhorn has speculated that open source remains stuck in a niche based on the fact that GroundWork Open Source has raised only $5m in series D funding. I haven’t spoken to GroundWork in a while (although Jay has) so I don’t have any particular insight into its financial performance, but I would make the [...]

Venture capital funding for open source vendors fell 31% in the third quarter compared to the same period last year, as was to be expected in the ongoing economic climate, but was up compared to the previous quarter. According to our preliminary figures, there were 13 announced funding deals in the third quarter of 2009 [...]

Eric Barroca, CEO of Nuxeo, has published an interesting take on commercial open source business strategies, highlighting that vendors that treat community edition products like a free demo are failing to make the most of open source. The key themes of Eric’s post have been discussed before (although his analysis is no less valuable or [...]

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water … another blockbuster open source software acquisition, this time virtualization leader VMware looking to the future, and seeing itself in need of a more integrated, application-centric position. That position, according to more than $420 million in cash and stock from VMware, apparently [...]

Next Wednesday The 451 Group will be taking part in Red Hat’s Open Source Cloud Computing Forum, the line-up for which has been finalized this week. Starting at 9.30am ET the event is designed to is to foster discussion across a broad range of technical topics related to cloud computing, including: virtualization, security, management, open [...]

Venture capital funding for open source vendors was down 50% in the second quarter compared to the same period last year. No great surprise there, but there was some good news as that figures was an increase on $45.4m raised in Q1. According to our preliminary figures, there were 13 announced funding deals in the [...]