Without Web 2.0 companies completing IPOs, the only evidence of bubble claims is overpriced venture capital financings. And no round this year is considered to be more overpriced than online genealogy social network Geni's $10 million fundraising from Charles River Ventures in March at a pre-money valuation of $100 million.

But, Redpoint Ventures partner Chris Moore angel investor Jeff Clavier wondered yesterday if it was so overpriced. Speaking on the Venture Capital 2.0 panel at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco, Moore Clavier said, "Are we going to do Geni at $100 million pre raising $10 million? No." He continued, though, that it's all relative and that observers reacted in a similar way last year when Accel Partners invested $12.5 million into Facebook at what was considerd at the time to be a high valuation. As Facebook continues to shine brighter, Accel's investment is looking very good. Moore's point is that the same thing could happen to CRV's investment in Geni.

Moore, pictured on the left of the image above, added said that as venture capitalists continue to get squeezed by angels at the early stage and private equity firms and hedge funds at the later stage, more venture capitalists will mimic Charles River Ventures' QuickStart Seed Funding Program. Launched in November, the program is designed to furnish the firm with access to the most promising Web 2.0 startups before angels or other firms have already won the deal.

While I'm sure Moore's correct that more firms will actually make good on their claim that they are ready to invest seed amounts into startups, I doubt firms will market it as cleverly as CRV has done.

For more on the Venture Capital 2.0 panel at the Web 2.0 Expo, see:
Pat McCarthy
San Francisco Chronicle

Tags: web2, web2expo, redpoint+ventures, crv, vc, venture+capital