With New Years Eve on the horizon, you might be in full-blown party mode. But let's hold off on the celebration for a moment. Put down the champagne because we're going to take you on a walk down memory lane, highlighting the hottest happenings among the Boston venture capital community over the past year.
We've compiled a convenient list of these stories for you. 2016 has seen the start of multiple new firms, notable VCs stepping down to chase other opportunities and the close of several significant funds. Here are the highlights from the last 365 days - in order from most recent to most distant.
Leonardo DiCaprio Joins a Boston VC Firm
Oscar Award-winning actor Leonardo DiCaprio became a special advisor to Boston-based venture capital firm Data Point Capital, as well as an investor in its second, $50 million fund that closed in September. Like the rest of Data Point’s advisors, DiCaprio is a limited partner in Data Point.
Flagship Ventures Closes a $285M ‘Special Opportunities Fund’
Flagship Ventures, a Cambridge-based venture firm focused on life sciences startups, closed a $285 million "Special Opportunities Fund" through which they will make follow-on investments in its portfolio companies. The firm also announced its second name change in its 17-year existence. It's now known as Flagship Pioneering. The Special Opportunities Fund follows Flagship's Fund V, which closed at $585 million in 2015 and is used to invest in early-stage ventures. With this latest fund, the total active capital Flagship is investing in emerging life science companies now comes to $870 million, and the overall funds managed by Flagship Pioneering to $1.75 billion.
Spark Capital Closes $1B in 2 New Funds
Spark Capital closed two new funds amounting to $1 billion total back in November. It closed on its fifth venture fund for $400 million and a second growth fund for $600 million. While the venture fund is $50 million less than its previous one in 2013 (its largest fund yet), the new growth fund is notably larger than the $375 million growth fund it closed in 2014.
In Their Own Words: What Trump Means for Tech Startups & VC
In the wake of the results of this year's Presidential Election, we asked members of the Boston VC ecosystem (and tech community) what they think will happen when Trump takes office. They touched topics including the impact it might have on venture capital markets, global trade, diversity programs and social media.
Underscore.VC’s First Fund Is Actually $85M & Here’s How They Structured It
Underscore.VC targeted $75 million for its first fund, but the fund closed at an oversubscribed figure of $85 million. And, according to Underscore, this is only the first of "many funds over a lifetime."
Founded in 2015 as Assemble.VC, Underscore is a Boston-based seed-to-A firm focusing on investments in cloud intelligence. Michael Skok and John Pearce, co-founders and partners at Underscore.VC alongside C.A. Webb, told us they have a "multigenerational" vision for Underscore.VC. Younger associates at the firm joined the general partners in meeting with limited partners during fundraising, Pearce said--which could help Underscore avoid the generational shift that doomed Skok's prior firm, North Bridge, and firms that came before it.
The Next Generation of Women VC Fund Managers
Shereen Shermak, founder of Good Growth Capital, published this piece with us in October. In it, she wrote, "My reaction when people say ‘give it time’ in response to the number of women in startups is, we’ve given it time. The numbers are only getting worse in computer science and venture capital. There was a higher % of women in computer science when I was choosing a University than in the 2010s. We could be on a collision course with zero at this point if the current trends continue."
Here Are the Boston Watering Holes Where You Can Find VCs & Founders
Where can you find the highest concentrations of startup folks throughout the city? We set out to find the answer, following a two-step, scientific process. First, we asked ourselves, "Where do we usually go to meet up with people in the community - or accidentally run into them?" Then, we polled head honchos in the local VC and tech scene for a sanity check. Remarkably, our selected locales lined up. The vast majority, anyway.
If you want to see and be seen, here's where you're most likely to run into members of the Boston startup community. You'll find some spots to be so hip and others to be oddly old-school.
Bain Capital Ventures Just Raised a New, $600M Fund
Bain Capital Ventures raised a new, $600 million fund, the venture capital firm disclosed in a regulatory filing back in July. The venture arm of Bain Capital, with offices in Boston and New York, had last raised $935 million in 2014 between a $715 million core fund and a $220 million coinvestment fund. Bain Capital Venutres spokeswoman Elizabeth Bride told BostInno that the $220 million fund "is still active and will continue to invest alongside Fund 2016 on our larger investments."
Rich Miner Is Stepping Down From GV to Start an Ed-Tech Project at Google
Rich Miner, a co-founder of Android based in Cambridge, announced he was stepping down from his role as general partner at GV, Alphabet's venture capital arm formerly known as Google Ventures, in July. While Miner will retain a board seat on some of his portfolio companies, he said his main plan is to start a new education tech project within Google. Miner will remain in Cambridge for the new gig, though a majority of his team will be at Google's Mountain View headquarters.
Glasswing Ventures Is Looking to Raise $150M for Its First Fund
New venture capital firm Glasswing Ventures filed paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission on June 29 to state its intention of raising $150 million for its first fund. The firm, which was founded this year by former partners at Fairhaven Capital Partners Rudina Seseri and Rick Grinnell in May, plans to invest the prospective funds in startups in the artificial intelligence and cybersecurity spaces.
MA's Digital Health Initiative Announces a $26M Venture Fund, Reveals Fenway Incubator
In June, a group of Boston business backers announced a new venture fund for Massachusetts digital healthcare startups. The Massachusetts Innovation Catalyst Fund, totaling $25.8 million in assets, will support any stage venture and is accompanied by a new incubator space near Fenway Park. Both are affiliated with the digital health initiative backed by the state, MassChallenge, city of Boston, Massachusetts Competitive Partnership and various other stakeholders.
Romulus Capital Closed Its 3rd Fund
Romulus Capital, a Cambridge-based venture capital firm, has closed its third fund with more than $75 million in commitments in June. Founder Krishna Gupta started Romulus in his MIT dorm room in 2008 with a few thousand dollars in capital. It now claims total managed assets of $150 million, which makes it, Gupta says, the largest VC firm managed entirely by investors under 30 years old. Gupta's partner is fellow McKinsey veteran Neil Chheda.
Why James Geshwiler Is Stepping Down as a Tech Investor After 17 Years
James Geshwiler confirmed in May that he was leaving as managing director of Boston-based Converge Venture Partners, formerly Common Angels. Converge made a major transition from an angel investor group to an angel group-venture fund hybrid and had been in discussions about bringing another senior investment partner and taking the firm to the next level. Geshwiler decided he wanted to do something new. He said his next step would likely involve him serving in an operating role for a tech company or multiple companies.
Introducing the 'Reverse Angel Fund', LaunchByte
Tan Kabra, a Babson student and serial entrepreneur in Boston, founded LaunchByte. In May, he told us that rather than handing capital to ventures and crossing their fingers that it’s well spent, Kabra and his team are extending startups lines of credit for services provided by LaunchByte.
Liberty Mutual Is Starting a Corporate VC Fund
Liberty Mutual, a major local insurance provider, made a few major announcements that would have an impact on the startup world. For one, it launched a startup incubator in January called Solaria Labs and then, a few months later, it announced the launch of a new $150 million venture capital fund. It ended up having a major hand (and a few million dollars) in the launch of a new home service provider startup called All Set, which turned out to be one of the first ventures launched out of Solaria Labs.
Jason Robins & 15 Other Tech 'Co-Founders' Join Jamie Goldstein's New VC Firm
After working at North Bridge Venture Partners for 18 years, Jamie Goldstein launched a new venture capital firm with 16 CEOs and founders at some of Boston’s hottest tech companies, including DraftKings, Wayfair, Acquia and TripAdvisor. The name of Goldstein’s new firm is Pillar, and it disclosed that it was raising its first fund, targeting $100 million back in May. It has since taken on Sarah Hodges as partner.
Here's How Often Boston VCs Actually Invest in Women Founders
We decided to scrutinize Boston’s VC ecosystem to see who's putting their money where their mouth is: Which of the most active VC firms in the nation's third-largest venture economy actually provide startup funding to women founders?
We started with a list of the most active firms in Boston - the ones who closed the most VC deals (including both new deals and follow-on investments) with companies based in Massachusetts in 2015, according to deal-by-deal data from the National Venture Capital Association and PricewaterhouseCoopers' MoneyTree report. Then, we went through each firm's portfolio page, looking at investments they made globally. We used company websites and other sources to find the companies that list at least one woman among their founders and determined what percentage of each firm's portfolio is composed of female-founded ventures.
