Is a slowdown coming for high-tech VC funding?

With the economy on shaky ground right now, some investors are predicting that private funding for high-tech companies could soon tank. But others disagree vehemently, arguing that investors should not be so quickly scared off.

Stephen Brotman, founder of the $2 billion Greenhill SAVP venture capital firm, warned last week that if the economy hits a bad recession, the angel investors who often pitch in on first-round start-up funding might be forced to curtail their expenditures.

If their own stock portfolios take a major nosedive, angels will become a lot more hesitant about chiming in, predicted Brotman, speaking at the Web 2.0 conference at Fordham University in New York City last week.

As a consequence, private funding could become less open to start-up companies that are not yet "mature," according to Brotman.

Other private investors strongly disagreed. Ian Sigalow, who is now a senior associate with Greycroft LLC, acknowledged that, when he first entered the VC scene back in 2001, investors had gotten "very scared" about putting money into start-ups.

But today, Sigalow noted, "I don't see the panic that I saw six or seven years ago." Investors have since grown more innured to "business cycle variations." according to Sigalow, whose past investments have included Airpath Wireless and Sensor-Logic.

David Rose, chairman of the board of the New York Angels, also took issue with Brotman's prediction.

Angel investors -- who tend to contribute about $500,000 to $2 million each in first round start-up funding -- represent a phenomenon that got off the ground in 1999 when the "bubble burst," according to Rose, who has personally raised tens of millions of investment dollars through his investment fund, Rose Tech Ventures.

Besides serving as an angel investor, Rose Tech Ventures also produces AngelSoft, a software product that many other angels use in running their businesses. From his perspective, Rose said he is witnessing no movements at all toward a slowdown in spending by private investors.

But Rose also pointed out that he and Greenhill's Brotman do agree about some other matters. For example, both investors have pitched in on funding for Critical Media, the company behind Syndicaster.tv, a Web-based TV and radio clip creation and distribution platform now in private beta among major TV and radio broadcasters.

Brotman told BetaNews later that Greenhill's investments are not at all limited to digital media or "Web 2.0"-type start-ups. But Brotman added that, on the whole, he prefers to invest in companies that own their own content and distribution mechanisms.