A report on financing and exit trends in Silicon Valley released today by CB Insights has revealed the ten most active investors in technology start ups from 2009 to date. The report, which calculates the places by number of deals concluded, can be found here http://www.cbinsights.com/venture-capital-silicon-valley.
1. SV Angel
The company: Ron Conway, founding partner of SV Angel, was an early stage investor in Google, Ask Jeeves and PayPal. The company is based in Silicon Valley.
Last three investments (as of November 11)
October 29, 2013 – SV Angel participated in a reported $3 million Series A round of investment in Frontback, a photo app that allows users to create images using the front and rear cameras on their iPhones. Co-investors included Lerer Ventures and Index Ventures.
October 16, 2013 – The company participated in the $7.6 million Series A investment round in Usermind, an enterprise software solution company. Andreessen Horowitz led the investment round, and Charles River Ventures also invested.
October 9, 2013 – SV Angel was one of several Seed investors in Splice, a musical collaboration platform. Other participants in the $2.75 million round included Union Square Ventures, True Ventures and First Round Capital.
Latest exit
November 7, 2013 – The Twitter IPO.
2. Andreessen Horowitz
The company: Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz launched the company in July 2009. The firm looks to invest in start ups that attack a large market, have a technical founder who intends to be CEO, and are in the domain of computer science and information technology. Andreessen Horowitz considers investments in areas such as consumer internet, mobile software and services, software-powered consumer electronics and networking, among others. It does not generally invest in clean tech, green tech energy or transportation.
Last three investments
November 5, 2013 – The company participated in a $25 million Series B investment round in cloud storage company Coho Data. The investment was led by Ignition Partners.
November 4, 2013 – Involved in a $5.2 million Series A investment round in MediaSpike, a company that provides native advertising for mobile and social games. There were multiple co-investors, including Google Ventures and Raptor Ventures and the round of investment was led by existing investors CMEA Capital.
October 29, 2013 – Andreessen Horowitz participated in a $1.5 million Seed VC investment in Pixlee, a personalized visual marketing platform that uses customer photos. Co-investors included Ariel Poler, XSeed Capital, Mark Gorenberg and Rothenberg Ventures.
Latest exit
October 2, 2013 – Flutter, a gesture recognition technology provider, was acquired by Google.
3. 500 Startups
The company: 500 Startups is a Mountain View, California-based seed fund and incubator program. The company invests in consumer and SMB internet start ups and related web infrastructure services. The typical initial investment size of the company is $25,000-$250,000.
Last three investments
November 4, 2013 – 500 Startups participated in the $5.2 million Series A funding round in mobile advertising company MediaSpike. Co-investors included Google Ventures, CMEA Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and Inspovation Ventures.
October 30, 2013 – The company was part of the $2 million Seed VC investment round in Runnable, which has developed a platform for finding reusable code. Sierra Ventures led the round and co-investors were Angelpad, Hiten Shah, Resolute.vc and Isaac Roth.
October 29, 2013 – Participated in $2.3 million Seed VC investment round in Moj.io, which provides an ecosystem of applications for cars. The round was led by Relay Ventures.
Latest exit
October 21, 2013. – Open Air Publishing, a digital non-fiction book publisher, was bought by Inkling Systems.
3. New Enterprise Associates
The company: New Enterprise Associates (NEA) invests across three key areas; information technology, healthcare and energy technology. The company invests in foreign markets such as India and China. It is headquartered in California and has offices in Beijing and Shanghai.
Last three investments
November 7, 2013 – NEA reportedly took part in a $40 million Series E investment round in Trivascular, a medical device company. Co-investors included MPM Capital, Delphi Ventures and Pinnacle Ventures.
November 5, 2013 – The company was involved in a Series F investment round in SiTime Corporation, an analog semiconductor company. Innovative Venture Fund led the round of financing, and co-investors included CID Group, JAFCO Ventures and Northgate Capital.
November 5, 2013 – NEA participated in an $11.5 million Series A round of investment in Terrajoule, a company attempting to solve the intermittency issue in the solar power generation market. Air Liquide Investments and Demonstration was among the other co-investors.
Latest exit
November 1, 2013 – The Climate Corporation, a company that attempts to supply data to help farmers cope with climate variations, was acquired by Monsanto for $930 million – $1.1 billion.
5. Sequoia Capital
The company: Sequoia Capital provides venture capital funding to companies across the globe, with a focus on the U.S. The company invests anything between $100,000 and $50 million. It has offices in India and also invests in Chinese companies.
Last three investments
November 1, 2013 – Sequoia Capital was reportedly part of the group of investors which raised $30 million in Series B funding for 6Wunderkinder, a Berlin based start up providing productivity tools. Earlybird Venture Capital and Atomico were co-investors.
October 17, 2013 – The company participated in a $10 million Series C funding round for Mintigo, a data management solutions firm. Adams Street Partners was the lead investor, and Giza Venture Capital was a co-investor.
October 15, 2013 – Sequoia took part in a $25 million Series C investment round in data protection company Druva. The investment was led by Tenaya Capital.
Latest exit
November 6, 2013 – the Barracuda Networks IPO.
6. Kleiner Perkins Caulfied & Byers
The company: Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers was founded in 1972 and focuses primarily on green tech, information technologies and life sciences. In 2009 the company announced a $200 million initiative called iFund, to invest in products related to the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.
Last three investments
November 8, 2013 – Kleiner Perkins Caulfied & Byers participated in a $7.5 million Series B investment round in Choose Energy, an energy marketplace covering the whole of the U.S.
November 5, 2013 – The company reportedly helped finance Therox, which is developing a new treatment to reduce infarct size in heart attack patients, raising $5.6 million in debt along with other undisclosed angel investors.
October 31, 2013 – Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers reportedly participated in a $9 million Series D investment round for AdorStyle, a fashion website. DAG ventures was a co-investor.
Latest exit
November 7, 2013 – The Twitter IPO.
7. Greylock Partners:
The company: Greylock Partners was founded in 1965 as a private venture capital firm. The company had committed capital of over $2 billion under management as of 2010. It is headquartered in California and is also involved in the VC market in India.
Last three investments
November 5, 2013 – Participated in Series F financing round in SiTime Corporation, an analog semiconductor company along with New Enterprise Associates, JAFCO Ventures, Northgate Capital, among others.
November 5, 2013 – Greylock Partners took part in an $18.5 million Series B round of financing in Betable, a company that provides a platform to convert mobile casino games into real money gambling titles. Venture 51 led the investment round.
October 21, 2013 – Greylock Partners and RPM Ventures both participated in a $4.5 million Series D investment round in BountyJobs, an online market for corporate recruiters.
Latest exit
November 4, 2013 – Sold, a company aiming to simplify the process of selling online, was acquired by Dropbox.
8. First Round Capital
The company: First Round Capital has offices in Philadelphia and San Francisco and often invests in pre-revenue and previously unfunded companies.
Last three investments
October 24, 2013 – First Round Capital participated in a $0.2 million Seed VC investment round in Real Food Works, which offers subscription based healthy food delivery programs.
October 16, 2013 – The company participated in a $10 million funding round for Nomi, a marketing platform for offline businesses. The round was led by Accel Partners.
October 10, 2013 – First Round Capital took part in a $15 million Series B funding round for DogVacay, a platform which allows dog owners to find places for their dogs to stay while they are on vacation. The investment round was led by Foundation Capital.
Latest exit
November 7, 2013 – Mobile gaming gifting start up Sincerely was acquired by Provide Commerce.
8. Accel Partners
The company: Accel Partners invests across multiple sectors including computing and storage infrastructure, consumer internet and media, mobile network systems and healthcare and biotech. The company is headquartered in Palo Alto and has offices in the United Kingdom, China and India.
Last three investments
November 7, 2013 – Accel Partners led a $20 million investment in big data applications company Jut. Lightspeed Venture Partners and Wing Venture Partners were co-investors in the Series B funding round.
October 31, 2013 – The company led a $50 million Series A investment round in Salt Lake City-based Primary Data, a provider of data center technologies. Co-investors were Lightspeed Venture Partners, Battery Ventures, Cedar Fund and Wing Venture Partners.
October 31, 2013 – Accel participated in a $9 million Series A investment in Circle Internet Financial, a company aiming to provide payment acceptance tools to merchants that use digital currencies such as Bitcoin. Co-investors were General Catalyst Partners and Jim Breyer.
Latest exit
October 29, 2013 – MoPub, the mobile advertising company was acquired by Twitter for $300-$350 million.
10. Lightspeed Venture Partners
The company: Lightspeed Venture Partners managed over $2 billion of capital commitments as of 2010. It has a presence in Silicon Valley, China, India and Israel. The firm invests in a wide range of sectors, including clean tech, communications and digital media.
Last three investments
November 7, 2013 – Lightspeed participated in a $20 million Series B round of financing for Jut, a big data applications company. Accel Partners led the round, and Wing Venture Partners also invested.
October 31, 2013 – Primary data, a provider of data center technologies, raised $50 million Series A round of funding. Lightspeed was one of the investors. The round was led by Accel Partners and co-investors were Cedar Fund, Wing Venture Partners and Battery Ventures.
October 24, 2013 – Lightspeed participated in a $14 million Series F funding round in Pivot 3, which focuses on software infrastructure for the networked storage market. The investment round was led by Korea-based Samsung Venture Investment Corp.
Latest exit
October 25, 2013 – Telespree Communications, a cloud based wireless data services provider, was acquired by Evolving Systems.