Private Equity
With flash memory prices declining, VCs are wagering the technology will be a major force in data centers and the enterprise
8 min read · 01 June 2010
The brain is a promising area for growth investments. Yet lately, it hasn’t produced a whole lot of exits. Those are some takeaways from an interview earlier this week with Roger Quy, a neuroscience Ph.D. and general partner at Technology Partners who has carved out a niche investing in what might be called the “brain space.” It’s a focus area involving companies applying advancements in brain science to everything from mental illness therapies to market research. And while in some ways it’s a classic growth sector – particularly with advances in research promising treatments for diseases previously considered uncurable – it’s also a challenging one, Quy pointed out in Q&A sessions, excerpts of which follow:
3 min read · 27 May 2010
Ask a VC about the quality of their own firm’s portfolio, and the reply always contains a glowing review about the world domination potential of every investment. Ask about the venture asset class in general, however, and speakers on the VC Panel at this week’s Reuters Technology Summit got a lot more critical. It’s a pretty universal view that there’s too much capital available. And overall performance, well, it speaks for itself. “Venture returns have been poor for a decade, and I think risk-adjusted they will be poor for a long time,” says Khosla Ventures partner David Weiden. Going forward, he predicts, the very best firms will continue to perform very well, and the rest won’t.
2 min read · 19 May 2010
2 min read · 13 May 2010
Venture-backed companies get a lot of attention when they go public -- especially if there are big first-day gains. But in the first few quarters after an IPO, financial writers have a habit of forgetting they exist. Apparently, we’ve been missing out on some serious riches-to-rags stories. That was a takeaway from a panel of institutional investors and an exchange head speaking at this week’s National Venture Capital Association Conference in Silicon Valley. “The number of companies that miss their first, second, or third quarter out is remarkably high, much higher than we think it should be,” says Duncan Niederauer, CEO of NYSE EuroNext. Such earnings misses create problems for VCs as well as institutional investors, he noted, given that venture backers commonly hang on to their stakes a couple years after an IPO.
2 min read · 06 May 2010
Seven venture-backed companies went public in March. Can VCs keep the rally going?
4 min read · 01 May 2010
The plumbing of the Internet needs a significant upgrade to meet the infrastructure needs of the smartphone era. Here’s what VCs and startups are doing to fix the leaks
10 min read · 01 May 2010
2 min read · 28 April 2010
In developing nations, people are adopting mobile finance services to avoid a three-hour bus ride from their village to the nearest bank. Here in the U.S., it’s been found that key adopters of next generation payments applications are women who don’t want to walk downstairs to get their purse. That was one of the takeaways from discussions at this week’s Future of Money conference in San Francisco. And it helps explain why one of the speakers, Menekse Gencer, told attendees that if they really want to learn about next generation payments they’re better off ditching Silicon Valley for Nairobi (where she’s travelled multiple times in the past year.)
2 min read · 28 April 2010
1 min read · 21 April 2010
