Mark Boslet
Seed and early stage investing jumped to new heights in the second quarter, and Internet fever appears to be the cause. Venture capitalists put money into 464 seed and early stage startups during the period, accounting for 48% of all deals, according to the MoneyTree Report by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association, based […]
What’s up with Roger McNamee and Elevation Partners?
This 29-year investment veteran and Elevation co-founder vows he will go seed stage. Yup, that’s the same private equity firm presently making “large scale investments in market-leading media, entertainment and consumer-related businesses.” So what’s afoot?
McNamee discussed his new approach late last month during an address to the Paley Center for Media, a Los Angeles-based forum. He acknowledged having changed his focus several times during his career. Apparently the time is
By now you know venture investors turned more active in the second quarter, with a substantial uptick in dollars flowing from their checkbooks to startups. What you may not know is that New York was one of the cheapest places to do a deal in this ebullient period. And that New England didn’t waste time […]
Venture capital investments rose to a three-year high in the second quarter, as GPs angled to capitalize on public market enthusiasm for companies such as LinkedIn, according to the MoneyTree Report. Internet-related investments attracted almost a third of total dollars invested in the quarter and represented the most money put in the sector since the […]
In January, we reported Michael Ahearn, the co-founder of solar titan First Solar, was more than halfway through raising a $300 million cleantech venture capital fund. It seems he has crossed the finish line (though no filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission is available). In a press release out of Chicago, Ahearn announced the […]
CalPERS, like many LPs, turned hesitant toward venture during the recent global recession. But the pension fund followed more free spending ways just prior to the slowdown, with commitments in 2006, 2007 and 2008 doubling or more. These mid-decade vintage years saw the California Public Employees’ Retirement System — the nation’s largest public pension fund […]
Commitments to funds of funds slipped in the first half of the year, following venture capital fundraising lower as the tight-money market continues. Twenty-six funds of funds closed on new money in the first half of the year, Preqin reports. They raised a total of about $5.5 billion, according to an excerpt of a market […]
Mobile is finally coming into its own. Mobile startups are reaching scale, with revenue of sometimes $100 million or more. Facebook and Zynga, once tethered to the wired Internet, are seeing massive mobile traffic. And Internet radio service Pandora Media now gets more users from mobile devices than desktop computers, a reversal of the past […]
The second quarter was a mixed bag for cleantech investors. The number of big deals fell sharply and the average size of a deal shrank. But M&A stayed strong for a second consecutive quarter and energy efficiency remained the hot investment category. Overall, investors put less money to work. Venture capitalists across the globe invested […]
Global cleantech investing fell in the second quarter as cautious investors favored later rounds and chose smaller energy efficiency deals over big-ticket solar. Venture investors put $1.83 billion into 161 transactions during the three months, down 10% in dollars from last year and 33% from the first quarter of the year, according to data released […]