Air travel hasn’t really progressed over the past 50 years. A flight from New York to San Francisco takes just as long as it always has, and with less legroom to boot. The only real improvements have been minor conveniences like online check-in and personal in-flight entertainment systems. “The industry’s most innovative products often end […]
The value of VC-backed M&A fell by more than half in February to $1.12 billion from $2.34 billion the month before, according to VCJ‘s preliminary analysis of exit data from Thomson Reuters. A total of 24 companies backed by investors worldwide were acquired last month, with four disclosing their financials. (See table below.) The month’s […]
Lemnos, one of the earliest hardware-focused investors to go all in when it was founded in 2011, announced in a blog post in early March that it raised $50 million for its third fund. The fund is 1 1/2 times the size of Fund II, which closed on $20 million in 2014. The firm invests in […]
By Brian Botch, Tricent Capital Investors like to think of ourselves as logical people. But we’re as susceptible to emotional biases as anyone else. To separate our impulses from our investment decisions, my company has spent the past few years developing deal-screening models. One night, while reviewing their outputs, I spotted an apparent anomaly. On […]
Three small secondary purchases top a portfolio of late-vintage growth funds at Hawaii Employees’ Retirement System, though funds from Summit Partners and Abraaj Capital also stand out. The portfolio of funds from vintages 2011 to 2016 is weighted toward large pools of capital. More than half the 10 funds are $1 billion or larger, and […]
The first weeks of the Trump presidency kicked off with a certain degree of, well, tumult. From immigration to Obamacare to relations with NATO, the new administration’s policies seem unclear, uncertain, or simply ill-conceived. This is less true with issues involving patents and intellectual property, but possibly because they haven’t yet been the focus of […]
Lisa Melchior, a former managing director of OMERS Private Equity, has launched a new investment firm that targets a key capital gap faced by Canada’s late-stage tech companies. Melchior, a 17-year OMERS veteran, founded VERTU Capital in November. She told PE Hub Canada the decision was inspired by her belief that many quality Canadian tech companies lack sufficient funding to leverage early commercial success. “I spent over 20 years on Bay Street in an institutional environment, much of it leading OMERS North American technology group,” Melchior said. “When I left, I felt I wanted to work with entrepreneurial teams and tech companies seeking breakout growth and needing a partner to get there.”
Oak HC/FT, a spin-out from Oak Investment Partners, is targeting $500 million for its second fund. The self-described venture growth specialist also set a $600 million hard cap on Fund II, according to two people with knowledge of the firm. Fund II will “likely [be] a fast fundraise. Fund I is young but is looking strong,” said one […]
Snap’s warm debut on the public markets may or may not offer a welcome sign to other venture-backed tech companies thinking of floating stock this year. But what it does do is pump billions of dollars of liquidity into the venture ecosystem, assuming its price holds to the end of the lockup expiration and beyond. […]
Lisa Melchior, a former managing director of OMERS Private Equity, has launched a new investment firm that targets a key capital gap faced by Canada’s late-stage tech companies. Melchior, a 17-year OMERS veteran, founded VERTU Capital in November. She told Venture Capital Journal the decision was inspired by her belief that many quality Canadian tech […]