This isn't really a prediction of where businesses will spend, but these VCs believe that these new trends, combined with a much warmer market for tech IPOs, could make 2015 a great year for enterprise-focused venture returns. In the past week, we saw four companies go public at over $1 billion valuations.
Emergence Capital’s Jason Green believes markets will only get better next year. “Markets are now receptive, there has been fundamental growth within the tech industry, and we are now seeing the broader risk tolerance that went away for a while. All of these factors lead to the potential for 2015 to be a big year for returns,” he says.
Bessemer’s Brian Feinstein says industry-specific cloud software companies will lead the way for tech IPOs, as they keep taking market share from on-premise incumbents. “The success of IPOs like Guidewire, Veeva, Athenahealth, and others have made the public markets more comfortable with the idea that you can build a large software business catering to a single industry,” he says.
Bessemer’s David Cowan says most acquisitions will happen in the security space. “FireEye, Palo Alto Networks, Cisco and Google will be the most active acquirers of security companies.”