By Alex Derber, VCJ Correspondent Pure-play hardware funds are a rarity in Europe, so a new Belgian investor recently raised eyebrows when it finalized a €117 million ($135 million) fund for early-stage nanoelectronics opportunities. Based in the tech hub of Leuven, Imec Xpand is an independent VC with links to the Imec R&D center, which specializes […]
It’s rare to see money flow at parties. Even in investment-laden Silicon Valley, potential fund investors don’t normally mingle socially while writing checks to their hosts over cocktails and hors d’oeuvres. But at an early-September party in Woodside, that’s exactly what happened. Portfolia Funds, which operates a platform through which accredited individuals can invest in […]
By Alex Derber, VCJ Correspondent The tiny Baltic nation of Estonia, with a population of 1.3 million, is perhaps best known as the birthplace of Skype and home to one of best public wi-fi networks in the world. It has also produced three unicorns: money transfer company Transferwise; gambling software developer Playtech; and car sharing […]
September was a tough month for M&A, fundraising and deal activity. Each declined in the month to finish what were otherwise good quarters on down notes. Meanwhile, IPOs soared in the month, as a number of companies, mostly in biotech and healthcare, went public. The following indices are based on preliminary data from Thomson Reuters. […]
The growing size of venture deals has become a critical force in fueling this year’s increase in dollars deployed, with large transactions now reaching record levels. The growth is most obvious in late-stage transactions, but has spread to the earlier stages, including to usually less volatile Series A and seed deals. In broad terms, it […]
New Enterprise Associates is nearing a close for a process to spin out startup investments from older funds into a new pool managed by one of its executives. The process is one of several run by high-profile investment managers using the secondary market to provide liquidity to investors in older funds and sort out long-held […]
Below is performance data for the University of Texas Investment Management Company‘s vintage 2017 and 2018 venture-capital funds. Internal rates of return are current as of February 2018. To download the full version of the spreadsheet below with additional data, click here: UTIMCO venture portfolio (2017 to 2018) UTIMCO venture portfolio (2017 to 2018) Fund Vintage Commitment ($M) […]
Later-stage rounds are growing in size, and megadeals of $100 million or more are increasing in number. So it’s no surprise that Edison Partners today announced the final close of its largest growth-equity fund to date. The Princeton, New Jersey, firm raised $365 million for Edison Partners IX, 22 percent oversubscribed from its $300 million […]
By Craig Lawson, MHT Partners The special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, is back. This unique, at times misunderstood, hybrid investment vehicle has enjoyed a strong resurgence in recent years. SPACs, known on Wall Street as blank-check companies, enable investors to acquire equity in a company formed for the sole purpose of finding an appropriate firm […]
Real Ventures has recruited Marcel LeBrun as a venture partner, according to a news release. LeBrun joins the Montréal venture firm after more than two decades as a tech entrepreneur and executive, including senior vice president at cloud-software maker Salesforce. He took on that job following Salesforce’s 2011 acquisition of Radian6, a Fredericton, New Brunswick, social-media-monitoring […]