The next big startup may just help venture back more startups

The accelerator launched last year as a “Y Combinator for emerging fund managers,” built to help solo capitalists and people launching rolling funds grow up. Now, Mead claims that all 18 graduates within his first cohort, which include Stellation capital, Maple VC, Interlace Ventures and Supply Change Capital, have successfully closed funds. Oper8r is launching its third cohort next week and soon will announce the launch of Cr8r, an early-stage program to help talented angel investors grow their investment cadence. The Wall Street Journal’s Yuliya Chernova wrote a story this week about how, after years of being on the decline, the rate of first-time venture fundraising in the United States is “On track to reverse course.” The story, pulling analysis from advisory firm Different Funds, states that “In the second quarter of this year, some 40% of venture-fund announcements, which includes funds just setting out to raise capital, were made by debut funds, whereas they represented between roughly 20% and 30% of fund announcements in each quarter over the past two years.” This means there’s more pressure for venture firms to go beyond a scout program when it comes to supporting the next big investors – and there’s more of a market for formal efforts to scale operations. The market isn’t a winner-takes-all, so expect more well-capitalized startups buying their way into consumer markets outside of their geography. Across the week Seen on TechCrunch Seen on Extra Crunch.