Commonwealth Capital held their annual open house this week at their Winter Street offices on "VC Hill" in Waltham. VC Hill is to Boston/Waltham what Sand Hill Rd is to Silicon Valley...the center of Venture Capital for the region.

Commonwealth Capital recently closed on a large new venture capital fund. Longworth Ventures, another Boston/Waltham based VC firm, also recently closed a new fund. In fact, over the past year or so, several Boston firms have raised over $2 Billion in venture capital. While the financial markets on Wall Street are in a panic, the venture capital community in Boston is strong, with billions of dollars to invest in innovative startups.

Boston based VC firms that have raised funds over the last year or so include; Flybridge Venture Capital, Spark Capital, Fairhaven Capital, Commonwealth Capital, Longworth Venture Partners, Battery Ventures, 406 Ventures, Ascent Venture Partners, and Staley Capital. The total funds raised exceeds $2 Billion. If you look over the past three years the funds raised in Boston exceeds $10B, with giant firms like Polaris Ventures, Highland Capital, and General Catalyst raising huge funds.

Microsoft is making a big commitment to innovation in Boston area as well. Microsoft has established a campus at One Memorial Drive in Cambridge, strategically located right next to MIT, just across the river from Boston.

The company has established a new research lab there under the direction of Jennifer Chayes and Christian Borgs that will work with MIT, Harvard, and other area universities to further strengthen the research community in Boston.

There is also a group called Microsoft Startup Labs, a kind of internal idea incubator for quickly building and testing new products and services. The lab, under the direction of Reed Sturtevant, is recruiting a top notch team of developers and former entrepreneurs.

There are several other Microsoft groups at the Cambridge campus including a UC design team and the App Virtualization team. All of them are hiring.

See Microsoft Careers for a complete listing of job openings in the Boston/Cambridge area.

It’s Microsoft’s intent to work closely with Boston area universities, research labs, and the venture capital community to ensure the Greater Boston area remains a vibrant center for entrepreneurship and innovation.