Private Equity
On Tuesday, President Obama signed a $787 billion stimulus package. The question now is whether venture capital firms without existing ties to Washington are already too late to capitalize on its passage. Although the bill includes enormous pots of money that venture-backed startups can pursue -- including in the fields of education and clean tech, where “smart grid” investments and electric car battery R&D are in line to receive billions of dollars -- it’s “the VCs who haven’t traditionally seen government as a black box that will be able to get in and get a piece of the action very quickly,” says National Venture Capital Association president Mark Heesen. An astonishing 177 venture capitalists joined an NVCA-organized conference call on Tuesday, to discuss the package and the opportunities it may present their portfolio companies. Pretty impressive, considering that many firms were holding partnership meetings that day, due to the
2 min read · 19 February 2009
Yesterday I wrote about a stealthy new buyout firm, so today it's only appropriate that I write about a stealthy new venture firm (given peHUB's charter to cover both markets, and all). The newbie is Makaira Venture Partners, a Stoughton, Mass.-based shop that will focus on early-stage medical device and other non-pharma life sciences opportunities. It's the outgrowth of an in-house incubator/accelerator program at STD Medical Inc., a 50-year-old medical device manufacturer whose clients include Boston Scientific (and whose acronym is quite unfortunate). The STD incubator (wow, that sounds disgusting) was mostly funded by angels and local VC firms, but the independent Makaira plans to raise around $50 million for its debut fund (PPM in process). It will hit up both high-net-worths and more traditional LPs (endowments, foundations, pensions, etc.), with formal marketing expected to begin shortly.
2 min read · 19 February 2009
Arboretum Ventures has closed its second fund with $73 million in capital commitments. The Ann Arbor, Mich.-based firm focuses on healthcare and life sciences opportunities, and had raised $24 million for its debut fund in 2005.
2 min read · 17 February 2009
Hey, who put the placement group in my fund-of-funds? That would be Solution Capital Partners, a cleantech-focused fund-of-funds manager that has been formed in partnership with placement agent Far Hills Group. Specifically, Solution will be run day-to-day by Russell Diamond, who previously ran a smaller cleantech-focused fund-of-funds called R&D Capital Partners. Before that, he was a general partner with Saratoga Ventures. Solution’s investment committee, however, will include members of Far Hills Group – who also will provide due diligence assistance on potential investments, and help raise the actual capital. Furthermore, the two firms are sharing office space.
2 min read · 13 February 2009
Bain Capital Ventures has held a $475 million first close on its fourth fund, according to VentureWire. A final close on between $500 million and $550 million in expected within the next six months. www.baincapitalventures.com
1 min read · 12 February 2009
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers is aiming to raise an additional $1.25 billion for four of its recent funds, according to regulatory filings. The biggest markup will be to the firm’s Green Growth Fund, which will double to $1 billion if the firm hits its fundraising target. peHUB had originally broken news of the new fundraising effort last month. It is also aiming to raise an additional $250 million for its thirteenth fund, which would put that investment vehicle at $950 million. In addition to its two most recent funds, Kleiner Perkins is raising annex funds for its twelfth and eleventh funds as well. Those funds are targeted at $350 million and $150 million respectively.
1 min read · 12 February 2009
Siemens is forming a $200 million venture capital fund-of-funds, which is designed to invest globally. It already has secured around half its target, with participation of the German Siemens pension funds and two European insurers.
2 min read · 10 February 2009
1 min read · 08 February 2009
The University of Texas Investment Management Co. (UTIMCO) does not publish private equity performance data on its website, but is extremely responsive if you submit an Open Records request. In fact, it even saves you postage by providing this online form. I recently filled it out, and today received a bunch of documents related to the system's investments in venture capital and buyout firms. And because selfishness is ugly, I've posted them after the jump. As always, before the dreaded J-curves...
1 min read · 04 February 2009
2 min read · 04 February 2009
