Private Equity
Domain Associates, a healthcare-focused VC firm, has closed its eighth fund with $500 million in capital commitments. It reportedly had targeted $700 million, which is the same amount it raised for its seventh fund back in 2006.
2 min read · 10 August 2009
1 min read · 10 August 2009
1 min read · 10 August 2009
We're just three days into the 60-day comment period on the SEC's proposed rules for placement agents, and market pros have already begun voicing their disapproval. The SEC website shows five comments submitted on Monday and Tuesday, with four of them objecting to the proposal's ban on investment advisors (PE funds, VC funds, hedge funds, etc.) using placement agents when trying to solicit fund capital from public pension systems. The fifth letter is an objection to the proposed ban on political contributions from investment advisors to pension-connected officials, which the writer claims is a violation of free speech rights (this argument won't fly -- nor should it -- since SEC already regulates political contributions in other areas). Read sampling of what's been submitted after the jump...
3 min read · 05 August 2009
1 min read · 05 August 2009
The SEC today released a series of proposed rules that would effectively bar private equity firms from using placement agents, when soliciting capital commitments from government-sponsored organizations (public pensions, etc.). The rules also would prohibit investment advisors from soliciting such commitments within two years of making a political contribution to a system official, and also would require that that investment advisors keep records of all political contributions made by its employees (contributions under $250 would be excluded, so long as the contributor is legally entitled to vote for the recipient). All of this is intended to combat pay-to-play scandals, which have been uncovered in states like New York, Illinois, New Mexico, Ohio and Connecticut. And I completely agree with the ban on political contributions (which extends to other "gifts"). Unfortunately, the umbrella placement agent ban is a broad overreach that will severely hamper new and small investment firms from raising fund capital. Hopefully, a compromise will be reached, whereby the implicit payoffs are banned but the legitimate placement agent work can be maintained. Two other minor thoughts while reading through the 114-page proposal (entire doc posted below): (1) There is no mention of contributions by the spouse of an investment advisor, even though such contributions are commonplace. (2) There is no mention of whether
2 min read · 03 August 2009
2 min read · 03 August 2009
1 min read · 03 August 2009
What makes Sequoia India tick? If you're interested in the answer, it so happens that the question is explored in a newly published, nearly 3,000-word article in Outlook Business magazine ("India's business magazine for decision-makers"). Though at times overly glowing, the feature offers many interesting data points. For example, it says that in the last 22 months, Sequoia has invested in 10 start-up firms from its third, $300 million, India-focused fund, making it the most active investor in the country. Perhaps more interestingly, the piece says that of the India-focused venture firms that launched alongside Sequoia India in 2000, Sequoia is the last man standing; the rest have either gone out of
2 min read · 31 July 2009
Newbie venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is a bit of an enigma, when it comes to its public profile. On the one hand, it's impossible to say the firm is in stealth mode, given that Andreessen has done more interviews in the past month than Barack Obama. On the other, Horowitz is apparently in some sort of witness protection program, the firm has no website and doesn't comment at all about employees whose names aren't in the masthead. In fact, the only other employee we even know about is Ronnie Conway, and that's only because poppa Ron told some people about it last week at the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference. But thanks to LinkedIn, we know now at least two more members of the Andreessen Horowitz family: Scott Kupor, chief operating officer, and Shannon Callahan, director of human resources and recruiting.
1 min read · 30 July 2009
