Fundraising activity started the year with a bang as 23 funds wrapped up their marketing efforts in the first quarter of 2014 with an aggregate $21.7 billion (€15.9 billion), according to data collected by the Institutional Real Estate FundTracker database. It is the highest Q1 total since 2008, when fund sponsors raised $25 billion (€18.3 billion). The Q1 2014 volume dwarfs the totals recorded during the same three-month period in recent years: $8.1 billion (€5.9 billion) in 2013 and $11.9 billion (€8.7 billion) in 2012. In addition, the quarterly volume is a strong follow-up to the Q4 2013 total of $26.8 billion (€19.6 billion), and it marks the third consecutive quarter that investment managers have raised in excess of $20 billion (