Member National Venture Capital Association

The National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) is a nonprofit membership association that convenes venture capital investors, entrepreneurs and industry partners across the U.S. venture ecosystem. Its stated purpose is to support the formation of high-growth companies and to keep the United States a competitive environment for entrepreneurs. Activities are organized around shaping public policy priorities, developing industry initiatives, publishing research, and offering professional development for members.

NVCA's core outputs include the NVCA Model Legal Documents, a set of industry-adopted template agreements used in venture capital financings; Venture Forward, NVCA's affiliated 501(c)(3) nonprofit focused on broadening access to the venture capital industry; and NVCA Peer Groups, which are forums for venture professionals. The association also maintains a public policy program spanning mergers and acquisitions, taxes, capital formation and regulation, immigration, healthcare innovation, diversity, climate and foreign investment, producing comment letters, coalition letters and testimony directed at Congress and federal agencies including the SEC, FTC and DOJ. It publishes content categories such as Venture Monitor, member and startup spotlights, and research.

Business model

NVCA operates as a nonprofit association funded and "powered by" its members, which include venture capital firms. It differentiates pricing for members and non-members on its events (for example, the 2026 Strategic Operations & Policy Summit is priced at $700 for NVCA members and $2,250 for non-members) and offers sponsorship packages to service providers.

Membership-based nonprofit association revenue, supplemented by event registration fees with tiered member and non-member pricing and event sponsorships.

Traction

NVCA publishes ecosystem statistics in support of its advocacy, including $244 billion spent on R&D by VC-backed public companies in 2020, 960% employment growth at VC-backed companies from 1990 to 2020 versus 40% for the total private sector, 62.5% of VC-backed jobs distributed across the entire United States, and an assertion that 75% of the largest U.S. VC-backed companies would not exist or reach their current scale without an active VC industry. Its RAISE GP Day program is open to 300 GPs who apply.

Latest developments

On October 2, 2025, NVCA released updated model legal documents reflecting recent legal developments, market practice and regulatory priorities. The revisions formally address milestone-based or "tranched" financings in the Stock Purchase Agreement, adding an annex framework for defining milestones and optional language converting an investor's preferred stock into common stock if the investor fails to fund a later tranche, and introduce new representations and warranties reflecting heightened U.S. national security and data security oversight, alongside corporate governance updates. NVCA's site also lists upcoming 2026 events: UnDemo Day plus Emerging Manager Office Hours in Detroit on October 1, 2026; the Strategic Operations & Policy Summit at The Willard InterContinental in Washington, DC on October 14-15, 2026; and RAISE GP Day in San Francisco on October 21, 2026.