Private Equity
Celtic Therapeutics, a private equity firm formed to acquire and invest in a diversified portfolio of 10 to 15 novel therapeutic product candidates, has received a $100 million investment commitment from PPD Inc. (Nasdaq: PPDI).
3 min read · 28 October 2009
The National Venture Capital Association and Cambridge Associates today released new VC fund performance data, for the period ending June 30, 2009 (VC returns lag a month). Most time horizons remained unchanged from the prior quarter's report, except for a significant drop in the 10-year horizon. Expect that decade figure to really hit the skids come January 1, when the 1999 results peel away. Full release after the jump...
4 min read · 27 October 2009
The California Institute of Quantitative Biosciences has formed a $7.5 million VC funding to provide startup capital for UC bioscience entrepreneurs and a long-term endowment for Qb3. It is being called the Mission Bay Capital Fund.
4 min read · 27 October 2009
Samsung Electronics and VC-backed mobile app company Handmark are partnering to form a global venture capital fund that would invest in "market-changing game ideas for next generation Samsung mobile phones." Each investment would be $250,000. Handmark backers include Apax Partners, Argnor Wireless Ventures,Borealis Ventures, Motorola Ventures and Village Ventures.
2 min read · 27 October 2009
WSJ blogger Scott Austin is reporting that Sequoia Capital is a small part of the consortium that has agreed to buy private bank First Republic from Bank of America, for more than $1 billion. Don’t quite know what to say, except that it’s a bit unexpected. Not only because Sequoia doesn’t typically involve itself with buyout deals (save for the Aricent deal with KKR), but because it also isn’t known as much of a financial sector investor. I’m sure Sequoia is aware that the VC world’s track record with big buyout clubs is mixed (to be kind). The most egregious examples are Battery Ventures with Freescale Semiconductor and Highland Capital Partners with Harrah’s. More recently we had
1 min read · 22 October 2009
You can stop pitching your buyout or venture capital fund to OMERS, because the giant Canadian pension fund is officially not interested. Instead, the C$43 billion system's 40% allocation to "private markets" will be used for direct investments in private equity, venture capital, infrastructure and real estate transactions. This strategy shift has been a popular whisper for months, given that OMERS hasn't actually made a new fund commitment since 2007. But it was not explicitly stated until this past Tuesday and Wednesday at the Quebec City Conference, by both OMERS CEO Michael Nobrega and OMERS Strategic Investments CEO Jacques Demers.
2 min read · 21 October 2009
We all know that Stanford University is trying to sell a bunch of PE/VC positions on the secondary market, but one of its offerings is particularly surprising. Not only is this fund a 2009 commitment (i.e., after liquidity troubles were evident), but it was a tough allocation to get. Can you name it?
1 min read · 21 October 2009
1 min read · 20 October 2009
A new Risk Capital Action Plan 2020 was unveiled at this year’s EVCA Venture Capital Forum in Berlin. Throughout the day panelists and speakers alike agreed that Europe needs more investment and less regulation if it wants to remain viable over the next few challenging years. If EVCA is successful, the new plan will see the European Union increase its investment program in venture. EVCA hopes that through the creation of a new pan-European fund-of-funds that will resemble the UK Innovation fund, European companies will have the incentive to stay in Europe. Anything from infrastructure, turnarounds, public to privates or cleantech will be included in the plan, however, EVCA are calling on the EU to match the venture allocation. EVCA General Secretary Javier Echarri was quick to point out that now is the optimum time to be making a case for venture to the EU. There is a new commission that wants to focus on technology, a new parliament and the EU is making decisions on what it is going to do over the next few years. But, being on the ground at this conference it is easy to see that many venture capitalists have their doubts about EVCA’s plan.
2 min read · 16 October 2009
peHUB is hosting a cleantech event in Boston later this month, with a focus on helping investors and executives navigate Washington D.C.’s regulatory and financial landscape. We’ve got a great panel but, truth be told, one of the first cleantech VCs I reached out to turned me down flat. His brief email reply was as follows: "Thanks, but no, not my thing, getting money from governments. Others are more expert and better at holding their noses." I didn’t think too much of his response at the time, except that it further confirmed libertarian sentiments that he’s expressed elsewhere. But then I (finally) got around to finishing Josh Lerner’s new book Boulevard of Broken Dreams, which focuses on the historical relationship between government, entrepreneurship and venture capital. One takeaway was that the VC – and others who think like him – are ignorant of the role that government has played in the VC industry’s formation and sustenance.
2 min read · 14 October 2009
