Open Sources | Rodrigues & Urlocker » $1.89 billion in open source funding (CBR)

February 27, 2007 | Comments: (0)

$1.89 billion in open source funding (CBR)

TAGS: Open Source

While some of us were skiing or eating during the Christmas holidays, Matthew Aslett was crunching the numbers on total open source investments since 2000. The answer? A whopping $1.89 billion. The numbers just keep getting bigger, too, with $475.2 million raised in 2006, up 61.6% from $294. million in 2005.

Importantly, from my perspective, open source investments have a natural multiplier on them. That is, an open source investment tends to stretch much further than an investment in a proprietary software company, which requires a large percentage of its bank account to fund distribution (and development - we need that Lithuanian language support, Tom!).

Given how much value is unleashed by open source, these VCs are veritable Santa's helpers. No need to give Christmas presents this year, my friends - you've given the world tens of billions of reasons to celebrate. ;-)

Posted by Matt Asay on February 27, 2007 06:10 AM

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