CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Christopher Ahlberg’s 3-year-old company Spotfire Inc. straddles two worlds. At heart, Spotfire is a software company whose product helps users visually sift through mounds of data. But the company operates in the world of life sciences, the result of a marketing decision to target pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Ahlberg is quick to note […]
Despite its defeat in 1995 in trying to force companies to value and expense all stock options, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has once again reignited the issue, setting a course that threatens to damage our entrepreneurial culture and seriously erode our economic foundation. The FASB learned a lot from the drubbing it took […]
BOSTON – Great Hill Partners, one of two spinouts from Media/Communications Partners, wrapped its first fund in mid-April on $330 million and added several staffers to help manage the vehicle. Pat Curran joined the firm as a partner from Warburg Dillon Read, where he headed the investment bank’s information technology services group. Matt Vettel joined […]
PALO ALTO, Calif. – Backed by corporate and venture capital firms, CenCom V Sourcing Inc. will operate a new incubator for high-technology companies that combine telecommunications, electronic media and computer networking. Larry Schwerin, an executive with 20 years experience at Lucent Technologies Inc., was tapped as the president of the firm, which began operations in […]
HONOLULU – The State of Hawaii Employees Retirement System in mid-April boosted its allocation to alternatives to 5% from 3%, said Chief Investment Officer Nathan Fischer. At the same time, the $9.5 billion pension decreased its allocations to real estate and domestic fixed income to accommodate the increase. Hawaii initiated an alternative investment program about […]
MENLO PARK, Calif. – In response to the stiff competition for deal flow on Sand Hill Road, August Capital closed its $195 million August II fund more than six months before the firm intended to begin investing. “We began fund raising last April and were done by the end of June,” said Andy Rappaport, a […]
NORTHBROOK, Ill. – KB Partners L.L.C. has invested in four deals following a $20 million March wrap of its first fund, KB Partners Venture Fund I, L.P. The suburban Chicago-based firm backs start-up and early-stage companies in the Midwest, investing $500,000 to $3 million in each company over time. KB mainly backs information technology, analytical […]
BOSTON – John Martinson, the newly elected president of the National Venture Capital Association, is gearing up to fight proposed changes to the way venture capitalists conduct business. Founder and managing partner of the Edison Venture Fund, Mr. Martinson is concerned about ongoing moves by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Accounting […]
MENLO PARK, Calif. – Mayfield Fund at press time was readying a late-May launch for Mayfield X, said General Partner Wendell Van Auken. The fund will follow the firm’s strategy of backing early-stage information technology and health-care companies. “It will be over $400 million, but I can’t pin [the size] down any more precisely than […]
SAN DIEGO/IRVINE, Calif. – Ventana Growth Funds, which offers a suite of domestic and international early-stage venture funds, at press time expected a mid-year final close on its most recent vehicle, Technology Gateway Partnership. Ventana, founded in 1974 by Thomas Gephart, invests in early-stage information technology and the Internet, and in medical technology and biotechnology […]