Lawrence Aragon

Carbonite’s gamble to go public during a week of market mayhem paid off for its venture backers. As a group, the VCs are currently sitting on shares worth $116.9 million, based on today’s closing price of $12.35. In addition, three investors sold shares at the IPO price of $10 for total proceeds of $5.2 million. […]

A day after getting beaten down with the rest of the market, three-fourths of this year's VC-backed IPOs posted gains in today's market rebound. Of the 38 VC-backed companies that have gone public on U.S. exchanges this year, 28 saw their share prices increase today, while nine experienced declines and one remained flat, according to data from Thomson Reuters (publisher of peHUB). That stands in stark contrast to yesterday, when 36 of the stocks lost value and two remained flat. The biggest gainers in terms of dollars were LinkedIn (NYSE: LNKD), which shot up

Traders showed no love for VC-backed IPOs in today’s bloodbath on Wall Street. Of the 38 venture-backed companies that have gone public this year, 36 saw their share prices drop today and two were flat, according to data from Thomson Reuters (publisher of peHUB). All market indices were hammered, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average […]

As you are well aware by now, the stock market plunged today on fears that the U.S. economy is slipping back into a recession and concerns about a debt crisis in Europe. It was the biggest selloff in two years, with the Dow and the S&P 500 both declining by more than 4% and the Nasdaq falling by 5 percent. I was curious how this year's crop of VC-backed companies fared in the correction, so I took a look at the performance of 2011's 10 largest IPOs of U.S.-based VC-backed companies. Given that I was expecting to find a bloodbath, I

The CEO of hot VC-backed startup Airbnb today issued a public apology for how the online home rental service responded when one of its customers had her home trashed and identity stolen by another customer. Chief executive Brian Chesky also announced new safety measures and a $50,000 “guarantee” to any customers who suffer property damage. But is Chesky’s mea culpa too little too, too late? It comes more than a month after a blog post from aggrieved Airbnb customer “EJ” went viral and earned the Twitter hashtag #ransackgate. During that time, Airbnb made a number of missteps, appearing uncaring and keeping the story alive. This morning, before Chesky’s apology, 10 media outlets had covered the story, including CNN, Reuters and the Washington Post. That’s in addition to previous stories from popular tech blog TechCrunch, which were widely retweeted. “I think this is the right response [from Chesky], but it took them too long to get to it and they’ve done a lot of

1. Top 10 Sectors Backed by VCs in Q2; the Internet Isn’t the Only Game in Town, by Mark Boslet 2. Don’t Let Momentum Slip–And Other Top Fundraising Tips, by David Toll 3. Texas County & District’s Top-Performing Funds, by David Toll 4. Who’s Investing Faster — DST or Andreessen Horowitz?, by Connie Loizos 5. Who’s Getting Rich Off of the Dunkin’ IPO? Here Are the Top Shareholders, by Luisa Beltran 6. More Money Flows into Mobile Ad Startups, by Joanna Glasner 7. Seed/Early Stage Investments Hit 12-Year High in Q2, Fueled by Internet Deals, by Mark Boslet 8. Playing The Field: PE And Pro Sports, by Gregory Roth

America Online co-founder Steve Case has held a first close on $250 million on a growth fund with a target of $400 million, according to a source familiar with the effort. A regulatory document about the new fund, called Revolution Growth II LP, was filed with the SEC on July 22. (The document lists the […]

If you want to raise your first VC fund, you’re probably better off not being in Silicon Valley. That’s one of the takeaways of peHUB’s analysis of fundraising data from Thomson Reuters (publisher of peHUB). Of the dozen first-time funds that raised capital in the second quarter, 10 are based outside of California. Most (four) […]

It’s like a jungle sometimes, It makes me wonder How I keep from going under. --Grandmaster Flash Raising a venture fund is proving to be increasingly difficult. As my colleague Connie Loizos reported on Monday a paltry 37 VC funds were raised in the second quarter. That was the smallest quarterly number in 16 years. But, as evidenced by funds raised in Q2, you can still raise capital if you can show LPs a track record of returns or offer a differentiated strategy. Of the 10 funds that raised the most capital in the second quarter, four are focused on China and India, markets that have produced big exits in the past couple of years; three are follow-on vehicles for successful funds; one is a new fund raised by VCs with solid track records; one targets the booming market for Android-based applications; and one buys distressed VC portfolios on the secondary market, where there are still plenty of deals to be had.

Want to catch up on the slideshows that your peers found most interesting on peHUB this week? Here are the top 10 slideshows that garnered the most pageviews from regular readers from July 4 to July 8. They focused on the most active venture investors in the first half of the year, CalPERS' dwindling commitments to venture funds, photos and opinions from Buyouts Chicago, Zynga's largest shareholders and Q2 cleantech data. 1. Slideshow: Most Active VC Firms to Date in 2011, by Alastair Goldfisher 2. Slideshow: Chicago Shindig Photos — Lots of ‘em (subscription required), by Lawrence Aragon 3. Slideshow: CalPERS Trims Venture Commitments Except To Khosla: ’09 And ’10 Funds And IRRs, by Mark Boslet 4. Slideshow: Who Are Zynga’s Biggest Shareholders?, by Lawrence Aragon 5. The Country ‘Needs a PE President’: Slide Show From Buyouts Chicago, by David Toll 6. Slideshow: Audience Opinion At Buyouts Chicago, by Steve Bills 7. Slideshow: IRRs From CalPERS’ Brand Name Venture Funds Underwhelm (Part I) (subscription required), by Mark Boslet 8. Slideshow: CalPERS’ Recent Vintage Brand Name Venture Funds Show Promising IRRs, Largely (Part II) (subscription required), by Mark Boslet 9. Kleiner Perkins and Andreessen Horowitz: Separated at Birth? (subscription required), by Connie Loizos 10. Slideshow: Big Deals Fall In Cleantech, But M&A Stays Hot In 2Q; Here’s The Data, by Mark Boslet