CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – As the red- hot market for e-commerce investments continues to sizzle, companies with innovative ideas about Internet retailing are finding themselves awash in cash from backers hungry to get in on the action. One example is CommonPlaces, a developer of the CollegeBytes.com Internet hub designed to help marketers reach the highly sought-after […]
AMSTERDAM/LONDON – Atlas Venture Fund IV, which closed in late February on $400 million, is the largest venture fund raised to date by a European group and this year is likely to rank among the top five technology venture funds worldwide in size. Atlas Venture anticipates its latest fund will invest an average of $5 […]
HONG KONG – Chase Capital Partners is raising a major new buyout fund focusing on Asia and is partnering with the International Finance Corp. and some of Hong Kong’s most prominent families to participate in an expected wave of divestitures and consolidations throughout the region. According to Arnold Chavkin, a partner at Chase Capital, Chase […]
SINGAPORE – As part of a plan to encourage what it calls “technopreneurship,” the government of Singapore has launched a $1 billion venture fund to shift the city-state to an “advanced knowledge economy” from a manufacturing economy, said Deputy Prime Minister Tony Tan Keng Yam. Minister Tan in April announced the Technopreneurship Fund, which aims […]
PARIS – Newly-created Viventures Partners held a second close in late March on its first multinational $100 million-targeted vehicle, Viventures. Launched in September, the fund held a first close in November on FFr 515 million ($85 million) and is capped at $115 million. Some $14 million already is invested, and a final close is expected […]
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) in April reselected Pension Consulting Alliance (PCA) as its general consultant for the next five years, effective May 1. The Encino, Calif.-based consultant had already spent five years as a general consultant for the $96 billion pension, said CalSTRS Chief Investment Officer Pat Mitchell. BARRA […]
NEW YORK – Venture firms returned to the initial public offering market in the first quarter, raising $1.85 billion through 26 initial public offerings in the quarter, according to preliminary data gathered by Venture Economics Information Services, a data company affiliated with VCJ, and sister publications Private Equity Week and The IPO Reporter. Internet-related entities […]
NEW YORK – Lehman Brothers is creating a $350 million to $400 million venture fund that will invest in small companies. In an unprecedented move, the firm is offering its institutional and high-net-worth clients an opportunity to buy into the fund with a minimum investment of $500,000. “This is really an extension of our investment […]
BOSTON – The Pioneer Group Inc.’s venture arm in mid-March spun out and formed its own firm, Ascent Venture Management Inc., and at the same time Pioneer sold its interests in three of its venture subsidiary’s funds to Landmark Partners Inc. Ascent will continue to manage the three funds raised under Pioneer’s umbrella – Pioneer […]
PALO ALTO, Calif. – Another player has entered the corporate venture capital fray, and this time it is a company that received its own venture financing not too long ago. Online investment brokerage E*Trade Group Inc. in March formed a $150 million captive venture capital unit headed by Thomas Bevilacqua, the company’s former independent counsel […]