Huntsman Gay Global Capital today will announce that it has closed its debut fund with more than $1.1 billion in capital commitments. The mid-market buyout shop effectively finished fundraising months ago, but delayed its final close to accommodate a handful of stragglers. "Getting fundraising finished removes a bit of a distraction for us, and now we can completely turn 100% of our attention to deals," says Steve Young, the former NFL quartback who is one of Huntsman Gay's nine managing directors. "We did a deal late last year and intend to close two more in the next couple of quarters." Huntsman Gay's investment strategy is to write equity checks of between $50 million and $100 million, to acquire mid-market companies with at least $20 million in EBITDA. Perhaps more interesting, however, is what will happen to some of Huntsman Gay's profits, once those investments are exited.
2 min read · 15 July 2009
Continuing to have fun with the IP video set-up in my laundry room (just 10 paces from the home office), this time playing anchor rather than pundit. Below is a Q&A from earlier today with Michael Toporek, managing partner of mid-market private equity firm Brookstone Partners. Topics include dealflow, exits and Brookstone's "potentially publicable" portfolio company.
1 min read · 14 July 2009
I often hear that the best VCs are those who once sat on the other side of the table -- investors who "get it" because they were once "in it." On the other hand, that argument is usually coming from VC firms who just hired one of those ex-operators, or from an entrepreneur who just took funding from one. So a simple question: Do ex-operators make the best venture capitalists? To get an answer, I pulled out the latest edition of Forbes' Midas List, which is supposed to rank the most successful venture capitalists. We can certainly quibble about Forbes' inclusion methodology and individual results (the older skew, for example), but hopefully can agree that the overall list is a good sample of quality investors. Next to each of the 100 Midas Listers, I put one of three classifications that best described the individual's career prior to venture capital. They were: "C" for C-level executive, "O" for lower-tier operators and "X" for those without, or virtually without, formal operating experience (ex-bankers, consultants, career VCs, etc.).
2 min read · 14 July 2009
2 min read · 13 July 2009
Insight Venture Partners is one of the VC world's darlings right now, having taken two portfolio companies public in the past month. But peHUB has learned that a partner on one of those investments, George McCulloch, has left the firm to hang his own shingle. Joining him are fellow Insight managing director Ben Levin and senior associate Sarah Haas. The new firm is called Level Equity, and is based in New York City. No word yet on firm strategy, although both McCulloch and Levin have historically focused on the IT sector. Prior to joining Insight in 2002, MCulloch worked on growth equity deals for Summit Partners in software, semiconductor and communications companies, while Levin concentrated on data networking deals for Greenwich Technology Partners. "They are good, talented guys who saw an opportunity to scratch their entrepreneurial itch," says Jeff Horing, a co-founder
2 min read · 13 July 2009
U.S.-based venture capital funds raised just $1.7 billion in the second quarter of 2009, according to data released this morning by Thomson Reuters (publisher of peHUB) and the National Venture Capital Association. The results are in line with earlier reports, and represent the lowest quarterly total in more than six years. Just 25 funds raised capital last quarter, which is the smallest number since Q3 1996. The largest Q2 success story was Domain Associates, a healthcare-focused VC shop that secured $371.1 million for its eighth fund. Get data charts after the jump...
1 min read · 13 July 2009
Looks like the U.S. government may solve its budget shortfall by utilizing the services of a certain VC-backed startup. Well, at least in The Onion's alternate universe... US To Trade Gold Reserves For Cash Through Cash4Gold.com
1 min read · 12 July 2009
Online radio network Pandora has raised $35 million in new VC funding, according to multiple sources familiar with the deal. No word yet on who’s leading the round, or which existing shareholders re-upped. Pandora had previously raised around $29 million, from firms like Crosslink Capital, DBL Investors, Hearst Corp., Labrador Ventures, Selby Venture Partners and WaldenVC. [Update: The company has emailed to say Greylock is leading the round, with partner David Sze joining the Pandora board of directors. Pandora declined to comment on the round's size or valuation] What’s particularly interesting here is that the new financing was signed while Pandora’s very existence was in jeopardy. The company had been operating under a royalty structure that caused it to shell out nearly 70% of its revenue to record labels, and which was expected to increase by nearly 33% next year. Pandora founder Tim Westergren referred to it as a “crisis,” and TechCrunch wrote that the company may need to be “sacrificed before artists and labels to realize just how absurd their position is.”
2 min read · 10 July 2009
What follows are ten VC deals culled from recent Regulation D filings with the SEC. They have not been otherwise disclosed: * Qik, a San Mateo, Calif.-based mobile video broadcasting service, has raised around $5.5 million in new VC funding (including $1.8m as a note conversion). Quest Venture Partners was the only listed investor. The company previously raised two rounds of funding from Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz, Marc Benioff (Salesforce), Arjun Gupta (Telesoft Partners) and George Garrick (Jingle Networks). www.qik.com
2 min read · 09 July 2009
Gary Crittenden, who today stepped down as chairman of Citi Holdings, will be joining Huntsman Gay Global Capital as a managing director. Crittenden had served as Citigroup's chief financial officer until this past March, when the firm pushed many of its riskiest assets into Citi Holdings. He was succeeded as CFO by Ed Kelly, who now will become Citigroup's vice chairman while John Gerspach takes over as CFO. Prior to joining Citigroup, Crittenden spent seven years as CFO and head of network services for American Express. He also has served as CFO for both Monsanto and Sears, Roebuck & Company. Huntsman Gay is a new private equity firm based in Utah, featuring folks like John Huntsman (founder of chemical co. Huntsman Corp), Bob Gay (ex Bain Capital), Rich Lawson (ex Sorenson Capital) and Steve Young (ex Sorenson and ex NFL quarterback). It has secured more than $1 billion in capital commitments for its debut fund, but has not yet held a final close.
2 min read · 09 July 2009
