New Enterprise Associates, which raised $3.3 billion for its 16th fund in June, invested more than $545 million in 67 companies in the first half, according to preliminary data from Thomson Reuters. That number of disclosed deals ranks NEA as the most active venture firm midway through the year. (See table below.) Among the firm’s deals was […]
Funds from the Column Group, Canaan Partners and GGV Capital lead a portfolio of nascent venture funds in the University of California investment holdings. In June, UC updated its private equity internal rates of return through December 2016. The portfolio largely consists of mid-sized funds that favor early or seed-stage investing. Of the 14 funds, seven […]
Steve Poizner, San Diego resident, serial entrepreneur and onetime California gubernatorial candidate, says the time has come to lure venture-backed business to Southern California and away from Silicon Valley and the rest of the San Francisco Bay Area. In June, Poizner announced the Alliance for Southern California Innovation, a nonprofit to help promote the region for […]
Venture firms could be on the hook for failing to prevent sexual harassment, and not enough of them are taking steps to prevent it and to protect themselves from liability when it occurs, employment attorneys and insurers say. Firms should enact clear anti-harassment policies in writing and conduct regular staff trainings, obtain insurance coverage, do […]
Two like-minded venture firms have formed a strategic partnership and marked the occasion with a first joint deal, backing the developer of an electronic nose sensor. TandemLaunch, a creator of synthetic startups in the consumer-electronics space, agreed to partner with Mistral Venture Partners, a seed investor in information-technology companies. The pact formalizes an already close bond between the firms, but will take the collaboration up a notch, including giving Mistral an early window on opportunities emerging from TandemLaunch’s company-building process.
Funds from Union Square Ventures, New Enterprise Associates and Technology Crossover Ventures lead an early-decade portfolio of venture funds from Washington State Investment Board’s Pathway and Invesco holdings. The portfolio, with vintages of 2003 and 2004, favors mid-sized funds with an early and multi-stage approach to investing. Two-thirds of the nine funds are between $400 […]
Recent sexual misconduct and harassment claims have sparked understandable distress among venture investors and their LPs. They’ve also exposed a hard truth: the industry is far from prepared to deal with the aftermath. Limited partner agreements have clauses for removing offenders and winding down funds. Yet using them is difficult and LPA terms can make […]
Sketched as a Venn diagram, philanthropy and venture capital overlap very little. But the sliver of space they have in common is growing, and one nonprofit investment company is hoping to expand it further. Launched in 2010, ImpactAssets straddles the worlds of charity and investments with Giving Fund, a donor-advised fund that enables individuals and […]
Flush with cash but prohibited from working with traditional banks, some cannabis companies are turning to blockchain-technology payment systems to simplify transactions. While some see the workaround as a bandage until federal banking regulations relax, others see it as a signal that blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies will transform the financial industry. In 2016, legal cannabis sales […]
By Alex Derber, VCJ Correspondent French VC funds don’t tend to attract transatlantic investment, and it’s rarer still for one to form without any government money. Paris-based Newfund meets both of those descriptions, with about 15 percent of its second fund, so far, sourced from U.S. residents, albeit ones with a French connection. “Let’s just […]