Private Equity
Catalyst Venture Partners of the UK has formed a European/Asian partnership with iAxil, a Singapore-based venture accelerator arm of Ascendas. The effort "will support and assist both European-based companies wishing to access the Asian market, and Asian-based companies seeking to penetrate European markets."
2 min read · 09 December 2009
5AM Ventures, a bi-coastal venture capital firm focused on early-stage life sciences companies, has raised $200 million for its third fund. The firm also has added Jenny Lee as vice president of finance. She previously was CFO for Global Catalyst Partners.
2 min read · 07 December 2009
1 min read · 30 November 2009
2 min read · 27 November 2009
There's almost always some shutdown news that precedes Thanksgiving, and this year appears to be no different. The Keiretsu Forum's Denver chapter has decided to fold after its December events, due to dwindling membership. In an email obtained by peHUB, chapter president Steve Murchie says that the Denver group is down to just 10 active angel investors, compared to a chapter high of 35. He also says that Keiretsu Forum may stop in Denver as part of a traveling roadshow, with more specific details to come at the group's final meeting on December 2. Murchie makes no reference to Keiretsu Forum leadership recently asking chapters to waive presentation fees for pre-revenue startups that are seeking to raise less than $500,000 from investors. That move was widely viewed as a response to Jason Calacanis' public attacks on the pay-to-present model, although
3 min read · 25 November 2009
Abraaj Capital Group has agreed to acquire Riyada Ventures, a Jordan-based VC firm focused on the MENA region. No financial terms were disclosed.
4 min read · 24 November 2009
1 min read · 19 November 2009
Back in June we reported news of a new venture firm called Founder Collective, which had gathered around $30 million in commitments. Last week the firm made it official, debuting a web site and describing its philosophy on Partner Chris Dixon's web site. Founder Collective is quite literally just that. A collective of founders, looking to invest in seed stage companies. The firm calls it "peer-to-peer" investing. According to Managing Partner Eric Paley, the firm has closed the fund with $40 million in commitments. The capital comes from around 20 investors, an even mix of entrepreneurs, family offices, and institutional funds of funds, he said. Founder Collective used its partners' personal investment track records as a selling point. In the last six years, they invested more than $20m in 31 companies, yielding an IRR of greater than 75%, the majority of which is realized. The New York and Cambridge-based firm has already invested 10% of its fund in around 10 seed stage investments, after looking at "well into the 100s" of companies, Paley said. "The demand for this type of capital is extremely high," he said.
2 min read · 18 November 2009
Seattle-based venture capital firm Maveron LLC is opening an office in San Francisco. It will be led by partner Amy Everett. Also in the office will be new principal Ben Choi, who recently joined Maveron from Storm Ventures.
4 min read · 18 November 2009
Earlier this year, Connie wrote about how TL Ventures was in the midst of litigation with three of its former staffers, including ex-partner Bob Fabbio. At issue was more than $2.3 million in clawbacks that TL claims is owed by Fabbio, former managing director Stan Tims and former principal Stephen Andriole. There is some dispute as to whether the clawbacks can even be requested before the funds are officially dissolved, but the larger issue is whether or not remaining TL Ventures partners used management fees to pay off part, or all, of their own clawback liabilities. As the trio’s attorney Cindy Olson Bourland told me: “I believe the evidence will show that certain partners… engaged in self-dealing by stashing away money for clawback instead of running TL Ventures in accordance with its investment strategies.”
2 min read · 16 November 2009
