Tag Archive for 'Venture Capital'

The Venture Capital Winners of 2011

Published on December 16, 2011 in Global Strategy. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Did someone say economic slump? Not in Silicon Valley. The initial public offerings of LinkedIn (LNKD) and Groupon (GRPN) brought billion-dollar paydays* to venture capital firms New Enterprise Associates, Sequoia Capital, and Greylock Partners, while Kleiner Perkins Caufield & is expected to profit handsomely from Zynga’s IPO on Dec. 16.

For venture firms that missed out on those high fliers, plenty of money was made in vacation-rental site HomeAway (AWAY), which helped Redpoint Ventures crack the year’s top 10. Khosla Ventures was the only investor to make a splash unrelated to the Web with its majority ownership of KiOR (KIOR), a biofuel maker that is valued at over $1 billion even though the company has yet to generate a penny of revenue [Source].

KKR Said to Seek Up to $6 Billion for Second Asia Buyout Fund

Published on October 25, 2011 in Emerging Markets. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

KKR & Co., the U.S. buyout firm co- founded by Henry Kravis, is seeking as much as $6 billion for its second Asian buyout fund, according to a person with direct knowledge of the plan.

The firm, based in New York, is planning to wrap up the first round of fundraising by the middle of next year, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private. KKR gathered $4 billion for its first fund making Asia investments in 2007.

Private-equity firms attracted $25.6 billion for Asia- Pacific funds this year through Aug. 31, compared with $38 billion in all of 2010, according to market researcher Preqin Ltd. Fund-raising in the region peaked at $88.4 billion in 2008, before the impact of the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. rippled through global markets, the London-based firm said in a report last month [Read more].

Intel Capital invests $24 million in seven new companies

Published on September 8, 2011 in Global Strategy. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Intel Capital announced today it has invested $24 million in seven new startups. And so far this year, Intel said that it has seen two initial public offerings and 10 acquisitions from its portfolio of investments in startups.

The new investments include five new software start-ups and two follow-on investments. Since the company is a strategic corporate investor, it shoots for both a financial return and investments that help Intel’s strategic interests. The deals show Intel isn’t slowing down its investments despite a slow world economy [Read more].

Emergence Capital Partners raising $200M fund

Published on July 26, 2011 in Global Strategy. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Venture capital firm Emergence Capital Partners is in the process of raising its third fund, a $200 million fund labeled “Emergence Capital Partners III,” according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Emergence Capital Partners is known for investing in enterprise companies like cloud storage provider Box.net and online enterprise social network Yammer. It also invested in file transfer service YouSendIt [Source].

VCs flocking to mobile photos

Published on February 2, 2011 in Social Media. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Instagram, the startup behind a popular iPhone application for editing and sharing photos, just announced that it has raised $7 million in funding led by Benchmark Capital.

Instagram also unveiled some famous new angel investors, including Quora co-founder/former Facebook chief technology officer Adam D’Angelo, Twitter and Square founder Jack Dorsey, and Lowercase Capital’s Chris Sacca.

Noticeably absent from the investor lineup is Sequoia Capital, which was earlier rumored to be backing Instagram. Sequoia did end up investing in blogging service Tumblr, which is so photo-heavy that it could be seen as a photo-sharing site.

Israel and the Innovative Impulse

Published on December 21, 2010 in High Tech & Media. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Despite its small size and geopolitical isolation, Israel has developed a global reputation for its cutting-edge high-tech industry.

Knowledge @ Wharton’s special report on Israel explores the drivers behind Israel’s innovative impulse, looks at the partnerships Israeli firms have forged with U.S. companies and the reasons why the Israeli venture capital business is undergoing a painful period of adjustment [Source].

VCs say they’ll invest, hire and sell more in 2011

Published on December 20, 2010 in International Business. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Venture capitalists say they will invest more in 2011 as hiring in the sector heats up and selling begins to shake off the lingering woes of the financial crisis, according to a study released today by the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and Dow Jones VentureSource.

Still, despite the initial upbeat nature of the report, it is clear that many venture capitalists remain worried about a bubble developing in Silicon Valley and are divided about how fundraising will shape up over 2011 [Source].

Gearing Up for the Coming Tech Boom

Published on November 30, 2010 in Real-Time Web and Social Media. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .


Amongst others, VC firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, is gearing up for the coming tech boom. That’s one of the reasons they hired famous Morgan Stanley analyst Mary Meeker as a new partner on Monday [Source].

Meeker said: “We’re at the beginning of another great wave of tech innovation and I am incredibly excited by the opportunity to help the next generation of Internet technologies and leaders.” [Source]

Gordon (partner @ Kleiner) said he sees a big boom coming, not a bubble, much like Kleiner’s managing partner John Doerr, who said that we’re in the midst of yet another boom for internet investments at the recent Web 2.0 Summit. The reason is that he sees a lot of technologies that are changing the way we live.

“The world of digital media is being transformed,” Gordon said. “A bunch of new businesses can be reinvented, thanks to social graphs, the mobile internet, and the new shopping habits of the young. Those are going to create a whole generation of cool new companies.” [Source]

Read related articles:
Another Technology Bubble?
M&A to Hit $3 Trillion in 2011
Private Equity Thrives Again
The Web Is Reborn (HTML 5)
Web Browsing is turning into Social Browsing
US$250 Million sFund
The Future of the Internet
Google Gets Semantic
Facebook is Pushing a Platform Strategy

Silicon Roundabout

Published on November 28, 2010 in Global Strategy, High Tech & Media and International Business. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

London’s high-tech start-ups: A patch of east London has quickly become a world-class technology hub. Last.fm, a music website and Silicon Roundabout’s biggest success so far, was bought by CBS Interactive, an American company, for £140m ($280m) in 2007.

Silicon Roundabout’s firms are generally small-to-medium sized and highly specialised. One makes software for the fashion industry; another runs an online dictionary. There is a hotel-comparison website, a firm specialising in 3D and interactive content, and several digital-design firms with their own niches.

Measured by the concentration of technology firms and the availability of generous and informed investors, California’s Silicon Valley is still in a league of its own. But in the second division of hubs, this chunk of east London is near the top, along with the likes of Boston and Tel Aviv.

Silicon Roundabout emerged without government support, or even direct links with universities, should pique the interest of countries that have tried to cultivate technology hubs without the same success [Source].

OnGreen raises $1.4 million

Published on November 14, 2010 in Greentech and International Business. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

OnGreen, a social media platform for green entrepreneurs looking for investors, this week announced a $1.4 million first round of financing by China Southern Hong Kong Investment, a cleantech investment fund in Shanghai.

The company calls itself the “LinkedIn” of cleantech investing. “We don’t just connect people with people, we connect ideas with money,” said CEO Nikhil Jain.

The company launched its OnGreen.com web site, in July, which has since been used by nearly 300 entrepreneurs in more than 35 countries. Startup hopefuls use the site to upload a business plan, and investors can contact entrepreneurs directly if they’re interested in investing in the idea [Source].