Alex Derber, VCJ Correspondent Spanish venture capital has never really recovered from the recession of the late 2000s. In each of the past five years the country’s GPs have failed to reach even half their 2007 fundraising total. Thus, Ysios Capital’s recent final close of €126 million ($139 million) is something of an anomaly in […]
A lot has been written about Snapchat’s coming IPO, but less about the investors who for four years have poured money into the company. They make up a long list of venture firms, hedge funds and mutual funds that includes not just big-name players, but firms trying to stay mostly under the radar. Two of […]
The United Kingdom saw 33 startups that raised capital in October. However, it was Germany that stood apart, as 27 German companies collectively raised $250 million during the month, according to a VCJ analysis of data from Thomson Reuters. (See table below.) German battery maker Sonnen GmbH helped lift the country with an $83 million round that included Chrysalix […]
October was a weak month for VC-backed M&A. But the year is on pace to exceed $30 billion in the combined value of venture-backed companies sold for only the third time in the past 10 years, according to a VCJ analysis of the data from Thomson Reuters. And the year should eventually rank as the second […]
Prynt, a San Francisco-based startup mixing augmented reality (AR) with physical photography, announced a $7 million Series A round of funding, as well as strategic partnerships with retailers Amazon, Best Buy, Target and Urban Outfitters to sell its product. The round was led by U.S.- and China-focused venture firm GGV Capital. Greycroft Partners, 500 Startups, WI Harper, […]
Newly minted funds from Column Group and OrbiMed Advisors are off to fast starts in a Texas pension manager’s portfolio of new-decade venture funds. Column Group II and OrbiMed Private Investments are barely three years old. Yet both have returned capital, sport attractive investment multiples and, by inference, attractive IRRs, a recent performance report from […]
Fundraising (value up 19.5%) Fundraising for U.S.-based venture firms rose modestly, amounting to $2.5 billion in October, compared with $2.1 billion in September for a 19.5 percent gain. Greylock Partners led the way in October by pooling $1 billion for its 15th flagship fund. Third Rock Ventures followed with $616 million raised for Third Rock Ventures IV. Deals (value […]
By Alex Derber, VCJ Correspondent Life sciences may be well stocked with corporate venture capital, but few pharmaceutical licensing companies have approached the market quite like Helsinn Group. The Lugano, Switzerland, cancer-care specialist normally acquires licenses to develop and produce other companies’ drugs, but in the course of its activities it has begun to note […]
Cybersecurity investing remains a hot spot for venture capitalists, though not as hot as last year. This year is shaping up as the second biggest year for deal-making from a dollars standpoint. But since it trails the largest-ever year for security investing, 2015, it also is likely to be a down period when the final term […]
Tom Gonser, who earlier this year stepped down as chief strategy officer of DocuSign, the company he launched in 2003, has joined Seven Peaks Ventures in Bend, Oregon, as a partner. Emailing from Lisbon, where he was attending the Web Summit, Gonser said he’ll focus on entrepreneurs in enterprise workflow apps, smart contracts and blockchain, and in […]