One of the tidbits you can glean from Washington Mutual's recent bankruptcy filing is that the bank wants to divest itself of its stake in 10 venture funds.

According to PE Hub, WaMu has about $36.5 million committed to the following funds: Arch Venture Partners (Fund V); ArrowPath Venture Capital (Fund II); Digital Partners (Fund III); FT Ventures (Funds II and III and a sidecar fund from 1998); Madrona Venture Group (Funds I and III); Maveron Equity Partners (its 2000 vintage fund); and northwest Venture Partners (Fund III).

The move by WaMu to get out of the venture capital business comes amid concerns that the VC model may be broken. I don't think I believe that the model is broken. A downturn hurts everybody. When the cycle moves on and the economy revives we may see different companies out there making venture capital investments, but the model will suddenly be unbroken...


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