Balderton raises $430 million fund, but boot-strapped startups are probably out

London-based Balderton Capital has secured a new £285 million ($430 million) fund to invest in technology and media startups in the downturn. Amazingly, despite the banking crisis, Balderton got the new fund together in only two months, which indicates that Balderton’s limited partners like its track record. It made $140 million from the sale of Bebo to AOL and had 15 percent of MySQL which went for $1 billion to Sun Microsystems last year. It’s clear that the wider media business will go through profound change in the next few years and the new fund is positioned to invest in companies that can disrupt faster than the entertainment/media business can adapt. However, if you’re a boot-strapped startup with no revenues and looking for less than five million buck you’ll probably have to look elsewhere, which will cut out many of the Web 2.0-era startups. Though this will hardly be news to most.