According to this article by Carta, nearly 40.7% of all venture capital raised on its platform in the first quarter of this year went to companies headquartered in California. This sounds impressive, but it represents a precipitous decline from 2018 and 2019 when California's share of venture capital funding was 51%. As a matter of historical fact, it cannot be gainsaid that the venture capital industry has been extremely important to California's economy and tax revenues.
Given the importance of this industry, many may be discomposed by the legislature's vitriolic attack on that industry during its most recent session. The Senate Floor Analysis for SB 54 (Skinner), for example, had this to say about the venture capital industry:
The venture capital industry is not only shameless in the investment dollars it seeks, but is also willing to make investments in businesses designed to flout, evade, or violate existing laws.
The same analysis accuses the industry of apparently "unabashedly in antisocial behavior" and funding "start-ups that misrepresent and deceptively market investments to potential customers and to digital lenders who structure their platforms in attempts to evade consumer protection and usury laws" (footnotes omitted).
As has been reported in prior blog posts, SB 54 will require "venture capital companies", as defined, to disclose specific information such as race, sexual orientation and ethnicity, about the "founding team members" of companies in which they invest.
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