Private Equity
Norwest Venture Partners, an investor in Misfit, Lending Club and Skybox Imaging, has closed its third consecutive $1.2 billion fund.
2 min read · 20 January 2016
Speedinvest’s $100 million final close has vindicated the seed investor’s work-for-equity model, which ditches carried interest for hands-on roles at portfolio companies
3 min read · 20 January 2016
Real Ventures has been voted 2015's Venture Capital Firm of the Year in an awards program sponsored by Techvibes, a Canadian technology news site. OMERS Ventures, the venture investment arm of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS) was the runner up. Other award recipients included Grow, a Vancouver-based online lending platform, which won Startup of the Year 2015.
1 min read · 19 January 2016
SoftTech VC has set out to raise $130 million in new capital for two new funds, according to a filing with the SEC. The firm also promoted two investors to partners.
1 min read · 19 January 2016
Covington Group of Funds has completed over $42 million in shareholder redemptions for Covington Fund II. This total includes over $24 million redeemed since the retail venture capital fund was re-opened on January 18, 2016. Since being closed to new investors in 2012, Fund II has seen 21 portfolio exits and has redeemed over 50 percent of outstanding units, representing about $180 million in assets, Covington said. The fund continues to hold investments in 32 companies. Covington said it is optimistic that 2016 "will offer potential exit opportunities" for some of these holdings.
2 min read · 18 January 2016
University College London's tech fund has raised 50 million pounds (over $71 million) in funding. The fund's limited partners include Imperial innovations Group plc and the European Investment Fund. Another investor Albion Ventures will be managing the fund.
5 min read · 18 January 2016
Danhua Capital is seeking to raise $200 million for its second venture fund, according to an SEC filing. Headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif., Danhua Capital is a venture fund that invests in early-stage tech firms.
1 min read · 18 January 2016
Evok Innovations, a partnership between BC Cleantech CEO Alliance, Cenovus Energy Inc and Suncor Energy Inc, has launched a new $100 million clean technology fund. The fund will invest in opportunities focused on developing and commercializing energy solutions that address environmental and economic challenges facing the oil and gas industry. Cenovus and Suncor, both integrated energy producers based in Calgary, have each committed up to $50 million in capital to Evok for a 10-year investment period. Founded in late 2015, Evok is led by CEO Marty Reed, formerly a partner at The Roda Group, a U.S. seed-stage venture capital firm.
4 min read · 14 January 2016
The number of new funds reached a five-year peak in 2014, but they appear to have leveled out in 2015
5 min read · 14 January 2016
Leaders Fund has launched an inaugural $100 million evergreen venture capital fund. Based in Toronto and Atlanta, Georgia, Leaders Fund will focus on making investments in enterprise software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies in those areas and in other markets in Canada and the United States. The new firm was co-founded by David Stein, founder and co-CEO of Rypple (acquired by Salesforce.com) and co-founder of Workbrain (acquired by Infor); Steve DeBacco, who most recently served as CRO of Applied Predictive Technologies (acquired by Mastercard) and was COO of Workbrain; and Gideon Hayden, previously a senior associate at OMERS Ventures.
4 min read · 13 January 2016
