Venture capitalists are having a field day -- not necessarily because of their new investments, but because of a boomlet in initial public offerings.

Twenty-seven venture-backed companies went public in the fourth quarter of 2014, raising $4.4 billion, according to the National Venture Capital Association and Thomson Reuters.

Most of the VC's share of that money goes back to their limited partners. In turn, nice payouts to limited partners convince those same institutions to reinvest in venture capital. Once those limited partners turn over their money to the VCs, they have to invest it, making more money available to entrepreneurs in need of it.

This is the seventh consecutive quarter to see more than 20 venture-backed IPOs, which hasn't happened since 2000.

Compared to the third quarter of the year, that's an 18 percent increase by number of offerings and a surprising 68 percent increase in dollars. In addition, the NVCA and Thomson Reuters say that 20 of the 27 companies that went public this quarter are trading above their offering prices - a sign that the market should continue to be healthy for new entrants.

For the full year, there were 115 venture-backed IPOs. While tech companies continue to get the lion's share of attention, for a while now it's been biotech companies that have really been the stars. For the second year in a row, they've accounted for more than half of all venture-backed IPOs. The year 2014 saw 59 biotech companies go public, the most since the NVCA started keeping records in 1994.

The most highly-valued biotech IPO of the year came from Juno Therapeutics, which is focusing on immunotherapy treatments for cancer patients. It raised $265 million at a $2.2 billion valuation; its backers included Arch Venture Partners, Bezos Expeditions, and Venrock.

The largest IPO of the quarter was neither tech nor biotech: It was Lending Club, a company that has a large technology component, of course, but which is essentially a facilitator of loans. Lending Club, based in San Francisco, raised $1 billion on December 10 and is trading at about 58 percent above its offering price. It went through 12 funding rounds before its IPO, including a debt round. Its early backers included Norwest Venture Partners, Union Square Ventures, and Canaan Partners, among others.