Earlier, we detailed a list of the top 10 Seed VC investors based on their portfolio’s historical follow-on investment rate. But we also wanted to analyze which of the most active seed investors from the 2010 and 2011 vintages were most inclined to reinvest in companies they previously seeded. From an entrepreneur’s perspective, having an investor who is more inclined to participate in follow-on rounds of financing should be a plus since it probably means less time wasted pitching and educating new investors.
Also, if you believe that seed deals made by larger funds who don’t reinvest present a signaling risk, this list of prolific re-investors is also valuable. Note: The signaling risk argument is one that was popularized by folks like Chris Dixon (Andreessen Horowitz), Mark Suster (GRP Partners) and David Hornik (August Capital). Unfortunately, the argument about seed VC signaling risk is not supported by the data as we’ve previously shown.
Continue reading “The Top 10 Venture Capital Seed Investors – Who Re-Invests in Follow-on Funding Rounds?” »
While we suspect Buzzfeed founder Jonah Peretti has changed his tune after his company raised $19.3 million in Jan 2013 and was valued at $200 million, Peretti once lamented on Twitter that VCs won’t fund companies that employ journalists.
But it appears times have certainly changed. PaidContent founder Rafat Ali has dubbed the interest in and funding to companies such as Buzzfeed, Cheezburger Network, and Vox Media as the “dawn of fat content.” From blog networks to GIF hubs, companies that specialize in the production and distribution of content have drawn more than $143M in financing in the last year. While YoY funding activity has actually dipped 6% primarily because Q3’11 saw $55M in venture capital financing go to TechMediaNetwork and Bleacher Report, YoY deal activity has jumped nearly 36%.
Continue reading “The Dawn of Fat Content: $143M Invested Across 49 Deals in the Last Year” »
With $1.1B in Ed Tech venture capital financing in 2012, we wanted to take a closer look at which of the larger education companies, both private and public, have been most active in both acquiring and investing in emerging, privately-held Ed Tech companies.
Continue reading “Ed Tech’s 10 Most Active Corporate Acquirers-Investors” »
From Ashton Kutcher to Justin Bieber, a number of celebrities have put their dollars – and sometimes their personal brands – behind tech investments including Fab, Flipboard and Mobli. And its not just celebrities themselves making investments but their agents and managers too — folks like Lady Gaga’s manager Troy Carter. The trend of celebrity investors is relatively nascent but has caught the eye of Hollywood talent and sports agency Creative Artists Agency who is said to be developing a new $20M venture fund as well as former Mashable editor Ben Parr who is working on the Hollywood-connected #DominateFund.
Continue reading “The Top 10 Most Active Celebrity Tech Investors – Ashton Kutcher, Troy Carter and Justin Timberlake Lead the Pack” »
M&A activity within the 3D printing space is heating up – not because of a flock of different buyers but primarily because of one: South Carolina-based 3D Systems, a NYSE-listed (ticker: DDD | market cap: $4.3B) provider of 3D content-to-print products including printers and imaging software. In the past five years, 3D Systems has acquired at least privately-held 30 companies with 10 of those acquisitions coming in 2012 and 2013, including recently Rapid Product Development Group in May and Valhalla Partners-backed Geomagic in January. Meanwhile, other publicly-traded 3D printing companies including Organovo and Stratasys, which merged with another 3-D printing company Objet in 2012, have been less acquisitive, but given the increasing activity and innovation happening in 3D printing, these players may increase their level of activity as well.
Continue reading “3D Printing: Who are the Next M&A Targets for 3D Systems?” »
Providing services ranging from sensor-driven thermostats to bracelets that can track how you sleep or eat, hundreds of venture-backed companies are now part of a category known as the Internet of Things (IoT). The Internet of Things describes technologies that connect to the Internet and to each other through sensors, wireless networks as well as other “machine to machine” methods. Given the Internet of Things theme covers a broad array of technologies and use cases, it is actually comprised of five key sub-categories as detailed below (with illustrative companies provided for each)
Continue reading “The Internet of Things – $752M Invested Across 112 Deals in the Last Year” »
Agriculture Technology companies (Ag Tech) have hauled in as much VC and angel investment ($100M) as more celebrated areas like transportation tech (think Uber, Lyft, RelayRides). AgTech has also pulled in 2/3 of the amount that has gone to (and which may evaporate from) App Discovery Platforms. Clearly, AgTech and the idea of applying software and hardware technology to all aspects of the farming process from production to supply chain and distribution is hot. The last year’s $103M was spread across 41 deals with prominent venture capital investors putting money to work in a number of early stage deals.
Continue reading “The Farmer in the Dell – Ag Tech Investment Tops $100M in the Last Year” »
Our Tech M&A Activity Report found that that 2277 private technology companies were acquired globally in 2012. A deeper dive into cross-border M&A activity of US technology firms in 2012 shows Canada and the UK were the top acquirers. India, Japan and Germany round out the top 5.
Continue reading “Cross-Border M&A: Who Is Acquiring US Technology Companies?” »
After Apple pulled app discovery application AppGratis out of the iOS store last month, we identified 19 other investor-backed app discovery start-ups that might also face or – in some cases – have already faced enforcement from Apple and so may be on their way to a pivot or becoming a start-up orphan.
Continue reading “With Apple’s Crackdown on App Discovery Start-ups, $149M Invested by VCs Could Be At Risk” »
With the number of seed deals exploding in the past couple years and a Series A Crunch underway (read our detailed report on the Series A Crunch here), we wanted to analyze which seed investors’ portfolios have the best chance at withstanding Series A funding woes based on their portfolio’s historical follow-on investment rate.
Continue reading “The Top 10 Venture Capital Seed Investors – Whose Seed Investments Most Frequently Raise Follow-on Capital?” »