Today marks a very exciting milestone in Norwest’s history. We are pleased to announce that we have raised Norwest Venture Partners XIII, our new $1.2 billion fund. NVP XIII will enable us to continue our mission of helping incredible founders and entrepreneurs and their companies thrive. Our success is their success and we could not be where we are without them.
In that spirit, we’d like to express our gratitude to all of the talented entrepreneurs with whom we work – you inspire us with your vision, passion and drive to succeed. It is a privilege to partner with these companies and watch them grow. In the last 18 months alone, we’ve seen 22 liquidity events, including seven initial public offerings in the U.S., India and Israel, as well as 15 acquisitions.
We also want to thank everyone at Norwest for all of their efforts over the years. Raising a new fund cannot be accomplished without the involvement of the entire team, including finance, legal, IT, HR, talent, marketing, data science, portfolio services, the administrative group, and the investment team. Each and every one of our team members plays an instrumental role here at Norwest and is critical to our success. We would like to congratulate the 18 investment, portfolio services, and operations executives who were promoted over the last 18 months, and celebrate the 21 new employees who joined the firm since our last fund was announced.
To support our firm’s growing team and portfolio network, we’ve opened new offices in San Francisco’s South of Market District (SoMa) and in New York City’s Flatiron District to provide better, localized support. Over the past year, we also continued to scale our portfolio services team to meet the diverse needs of our companies. We have expanded resources in the areas of talent and retention, human resources advisory, business development, marketing, and operations strategy, including domestic and international tax counsel. This also includes producing multiple content-oriented events that we continue to host for our founders, entrepreneurs and key executives in various functions, and launching The Loop, an exclusive online community for Norwest portfolio companies.
Looking forward, this latest fund will enable us to continue pursuing the next generation of early to late stage venture and growth equity investments across a wide range of sectors and geographies. Norwest has a long track record of working with the most innovative companies in the key sectors that are important to us: technology (cloud & IT infrastructure, Internet & consumer, SaaS), business services, financial services, consumer, and healthcare. Our new fund helps us carry on this tradition and enables us to reach even more entrepreneurs and help them on their paths to building and growing great companies that last.
It is truly a singular time to be an investor. The technological possibilities are endless; each new emerging product and offering is more exciting than the last. Amid this unbridled growth, we remain steadfast in our mission to help founders at any stage take the steps necessary to improve and shape tomorrow’s technological landscape.
To read more about our 2015 highlights and future goals, please see the NVP XIII announcement press release below.
Norwest Venture Partners Closes Third Consecutive
$1.2 Billion Fund
Norwest Venture Partners XIII Raised on the Heels Record Success Across Early to Late Stage Venture and Growth Equity Investments Globally
PALO ALTO, Calif. – January 20, 2016 – Norwest Venture Partners, a global venture capital and growth equity investment firm, today announced the formation of its latest fund, Norwest Venture Partners XIII, LP. The $1.2B fund targets early to late stage venture and growth equity investments across a wide range of sectors and geographies. The launch of Norwest Venture Partners XIII, which brings Norwest’s total capital and commitments to more than $6 billion, closes on the heels of a record year and a half, as 22 of the Norwest’s portfolio companies experienced liquidity events in the past 18 months.
Norwest Venture Partners XIII follows Norwest Venture Partners XII, a $1.2B fund. Since the announcement of the firm’s previous fund, Norwest opened new offices in San Francisco and New York City, and made significant investments in key areas of focus including healthcare, consumer Internet and enterprise. Norwest also further expanded its portfolio services advisory resources to support its growing network of companies in the areas of talent and retention, human resources advisory, business development, marketing, and operations, including domestic and international tax counsel. Norwest has invested in more than 575 companies since inception, and currently has over 130 active companies across its venture and growth equity portfolio.
“Norwest has a long track record of working with the most innovative companies across geographies, sectors and stages, and our new fund helps us continue this tradition. As a firm, entrepreneurs have relied on our team for decades not only as business partners, but for expertise across every part of their business,” said Promod Haque, senior managing partner at Norwest Venture Partners. “With the new fund we’ll be able to reach even more entrepreneurs and help them on their paths to building great companies that last.”
The firm’s exit success has continued across the portfolio in the last 18 months, including seven public offerings in the U.S., India and Israel, as well as 15 acquisitions.
Initial Public Offerings:
- On the heels of FireEye’s (NASDAQ: FEYE) initial public offering in late 2013, a company in which Norwest was an early-stage and long term investor, the firm continued its success on the public markets with the debut of the number one credit marketplace, Lending Club (NASDAQ: LC). Norwest served as a Series A and lead investor supporting Lending Club from the early stages of the company through one of the most successful initial public offerings of 2014.
- Within the firm’s growing healthcare sector, commercial drug-device company Intersect ENT (NASDAQ: XENT) filed its initial public offering in July 2014.
- Other initial public offerings included such companies as Apigee (NASDAQ: APIC), MobileIron (NASDAQ: MOBL), Sadbhav (NSE: SADBHAV), Snowman Logistics (NSE: SNOWMAN) and Solar Edge Technologies (NASDAQ: SEDG).
Mergers & Acquisitions:
- The firm also witnessed the acquisitions of satellite imaging company Skybox Imaging by Google for $500M in its venture portfolio, as well as big data discovery and data sharing platform 1010data to Advance for $500M in its growth equity portfolio.
- Most recently, wearable tech company Misfit was acquired by the Fossil Group for $260M, video processing startup Elemental was sold to Amazon for $296M, and outplacement provider RiseSmart was sold to Randstad for $100M.
- Other mergers and acquisitions included the sale of online marketing firm AdChina to Alibaba (NYSE: BABA), the acquisition of map tech startup deCarta by Uber, the sale of video advertising company true[x] media to 21st Century Fox, the sale of software defined networking startup ConteXtream to HP, software-defined networking company Cyan Inc. to Ciena, predictive analytics for retail businesses The Retail Equation to Appriss, big data startup Hadapt to Teradata, and the merger of Pertino with Cradlepoint.
Active companies in Norwest’s portfolio span a wide variety of sectors and stages including such enterprise innovators as Act-On, Adaptive Insights, Bitglass, Blue Jeans Network, Borqs, Bracket Computing, Dtex, Exabeam, Exablox, Glint, Palerra, PCH, Ravello and Velostrata, and consumer Internet leaders including Casper Sleep, Honeybook, IFTTT, Jet, Lumosity, Madison Reed, Minted, Modcloth, Spotify, SundaySky, Turn, Uber and Udemy. Active growth equity investments include such companies as Clarus Commerce, Kendra Scott, My Alarm Center, PCA Skin, PICS, Rainmaker, The Learning Experience (TLE), Turnitin, and WineAccess. Healthcare venture investments include such companies as CareCloud, ClearDATA, Crossover Health, Health Catalyst, Intersect ENT, iRhythm, Omada Health, and TigerText, while healthcare growth equity investments include such companies as Capsugel, iCardiac and Rivermend Health. Current investments in India include such venture and growth companies as Cholamandalam Finance, Indusind Bank, Manthan, NSE, Quikr, Swiggy, Thyrocare and Yatra.
“Our exit success over the past 18 months, and our continued track record for partnering with passionate and innovative founders to help them build and grow meaningful businesses, enabled us to raise our third consecutive $1.2 billion fund,” said Jeff Crowe, managing partner, Norwest Venture Partners. “Our portfolio company leaders have created more than $8 billion in market value over the last 18 months alone. We look forward to partnering with the next set of talented entrepreneurs to help them bring new technologies, products and services to life, as we are in the midst of an extraordinary time in innovation across sectors.”
“Raising a large, global fund is one the key differentiators for Norwest as it allows us the flexibility to invest in the right companies at the right time. We’ve been operating out of a global fund for a very long time. It has proven to work for our team and our entrepreneurs as our companies participate in a global economy along with broad access to talent and resources,” said Matthew Howard, managing partner at Norwest Venture Partners. “With our platform, our entrepreneurs can leverage our global network and they have the commitment from every partner to make their company a success. It’s a key aspect of our firm’s DNA.”
Norwest Snapshot
- Sectors: Norwest invests in companies across a wide range of sectors including: technology (cloud & IT infrastructure, Internet & consumer, SaaS), business services, financial services, consumer, and healthcare.
- Stages: Norwest works with companies of all sizes and at all stages of investment from seed and Series A to late stage venture and growth equity.
- Geographies: Norwest is a global venture and growth equity investment firm headquartered in Palo Alto, California, with offices in San Francisco and New York and subsidiaries in Mumbai and Bengaluru in India, and Herzelia, Israel.
- Portfolio Services: Norwest understands that every business is unique and one size does not fit all when it comes to today’s operational challenges. The firm offers as-needed, customizable services to help entrepreneurs tackle what’s next in the areas of Talent and Retention, Business Development, HR Advisory, PR and Marketing, Operations Strategy, Norwest events and The Loop, an exclusive online community for Norwest portfolio companies.
