For many Silicon Valley venture capitalists and entrepreneurs, TechCrunch has become a must read, reported Wall Street Journal recently.  WSJ report also highlighted that TechCrunch profiles of the consumer internet and the Web 2.0 companies drive business/traffic at the start-ups, and many also get unsolicited calls from venture capitalists.

We wanted to analyze just how much new VC money was raised by the start-ups that were profiled in TechCrunch. This is not exactly a cause and effect study (several of these companies have raised VC money before they were profiled in TechCrunch), but just an interesting analysis on the new generation of the Web 2.0 start-ups and the influential role of TechCrunch. 

Based on our analysis, well over $1 billion has been raised by companies that were profiled on TechCrunch since the service was launched in Jun 2005. So far in 2006, 62 such companies have raised close to $855 million in 67 deals in new VC money. Considering the demand in consumer oriented internet businesses, the funding could hit the $1 billion mark for the full year of 2006. 

We will track and update these numbers monthly and will also provide the 2006 tally at the end of the year. The 2006 deals are listed below. If we have missed any of the 2006 investments, please let us know.

Some comparisons: VCs have put a total of $455.5 million into 79 Web 2.0 companies during the first 9 months of the year, according VentureOne.  More than $1.63 billion has been invested so far this year into 198 consumer technology companies headquartered in the U.S.

In addition to TechCrunch, here are few other great blogs that write about the new web:  

• Read/WriteWeb and Web 2.0 Explorer by Richard MacManus
• Web 2.0 Show, a podcast about the "new" Web
• Web 2.0 Central, companies, discussions, mashups and toolkits
• paidContent.org by Rafat Ali, covering digital media
• GigaOM.com by Om Malik, covering broadband and Web 2.0
• Tech Beat at BusinessWeek Online
• Go2Web20.net, The complete Web 2.0 directory
• Seth Godin’s Web 2.0 Traffic Watch List at Alexaholic
• Tracking Web 2.0 at Web Things Considered

Our favorites sites for venture capital perspectives on the new generation of consumer oriented internet start-ups are:

• Matt Marshall's VentureBeat 
• Dan Primack's PEHub
• Jeff Clavier's Software Only
• Guy Kawasaki's How To Change The World

Check out Guy Kawasaki's  last week interview (video) with Mike Arrington, primarily on ”How do I get my company in TechCrunch?“. 

Also, check at Metrics 2.0 for more of the key Private Equity and Venture Capital stats and metrics, including VC investments, VC fund raising, VC fund performance, liquidity metrics of the venture-backed companies, and VC Deals.