Last year, a dozen of Boston's notable venture capital firms who invest in tech—some of them veteran tech VCs, some of them relatively new—closed on funds of about $2 billion.
With the new cash, these tech startup investors from the Boston area are looking to back promising companies in 2015.
Fund details are from the National Venture Capital Association and our own reporting.
Bain Capital Venture Fund 2014, L.P. — $650M
Bain Capital Ventures, a backer of enterprise- as well as consumer technology companies, enjoyed exits for several of its portfolio companies in 2014. Among them were e-commerce software firm CQuotient (acquired by Demandware) and cloud app performance startup Stackdriver (acquired by Google). The firm's current portfolio companies in the Boston area include EverTrue, Rapid7, VMTurbo and ZeroTurnaround.
Polaris Partners VII, L.P. — $450M
A number of companies backed by Polaris Partners, which mainly fall in the technology and healthcare categories, also saw noteworthy growth in 2014. Among the Boston area's tech IPOs last year was health IT firm Imprivata, a Polaris portfolio company that went public in June. Current local tech startup investments include Localytics, Logentries and SiOnyx.
Spark Capital Growth Fund, L.P. — $375M
With a focus on consumer-facing tech, Spark has risen to prominence for its early-stage investments into—and big returns from—the likes of Twitter, Tumblr and Oculus. Other portfolio companies have included Superpedestrian, Warby Parker and Wayfair.
OpenView Venture Partners IV, L.P. — $250M
OpenView is focused on backing B2B software companies that are already generating revenue and are looking for some expansion funding. Its current portfolio includes Sonian and Intronis.
Causeway Media Partners, L.P. — $125.6M
With Celtics co-owner and CEO Wyc Grousbeck as one of its partners, Causeway is primarily focused on sports media and entertainment-related companies. Its latest investments include the ticket deal search engine SeatGeek.
NextView Ventures II, L.P. — $40M
Focused on Internet and mobile-enabled tech companies at the seed stage, NextView's investments typically range from $250,000 to $1 million. In 2014, NextView saw acquisitions of several of its portfolio companies (TapCommerce to Twitter, GrabCAD to Stratasys, Directr to Google) as well as three late-stage fundraises (InsightSquared, Swipely and thredUP).
G20 Ventures I, L.P. — $37.9M
The investment focus at G20 ventures is on early-stage companies in the enterprise software, infrastructure and Internet technology realms. Additionally, it deals exclusively with East Coast companies (Boston, NYC, Raleigh). Portfolio companies include Dunwello and Evergage.
Amplify Partners, L.P. — $33M
Amplify is very clear about what they aren’t: Not casual angel investors, not a growth equity firm and not willing to bank consumer internet or cleantech companies. They do, on the other hand, back technical entrepreneurs focused on the next generation of IT infrastructure, like a real-time content delivery network or a cloud-based big data application hosting platform. Current investments include DevOps security firm Conjur of Cambridge and Datadog, which has an office in Fort Point.
CommonAngels Ventures Fund IV, L.P. — $26.5M
Software, Internet, digital media, cloud and mobile startups on the East Coast are the focus for this firm, which invests mainly in seed rounds to early Series A. Among the local startups in its portfolio are Promoboxx, Apperian, Disruptor Beam, Dunwello and InsightSquared.
In October, CommonAngels announced its $26.5 million, seed-stage fund and a new name—CommonAngels Ventures. "We think our new fund—CommonAngels Ventures IV—is representative of a broader trend happening within venture capital of new business models," said senior managing director Maia Heymann. "There are new and different ways of investing in startups, supporting them during their early stages and growth phases, and making healthy investment returns for our Fund's investors."
Ascent Venture Partners VI, L.P. — $25M
This State Street-based partnership is dedicated entirely to investing in East Coast early stage enterprise IT companies—more specifically, in these categories: data and analytics, shift to the cloud, security, and mobile and communications. The firms in Ascent’s portfolio typically obtain initial investments anywhere between $2 million and $5 million. Last summer, the B2B marketing platform Bizo, which is backed by Ascent, was acquired by LinkedIn for $175 million.
M/C Partners VII, L.P. — $24M
Portfolio companies for this VC firm, which was founded in the mid-’80s fall primarily in the communications, technology, and media sectors, including wireless and fiber communications services as well as out-of-home advertising. Investments vary in stage, and range in amount from $5 million to $50 million of equity. One thing that sets M/C Partners apart is the hands-on approach it takes in assisting the management teams on the companies it invests in. In July, the VC firm led a $50 million equity financing round for Involta, a leading managed IT, cloud computing and data center services company.
Indicator Ventures, L.P. — $14.4M
Though this partnership only emerged in Boston last July, the early-stage venture fund, which says its "sweet spot" is the stage right before a Series B raise, has gathered a healthy range of companies in its portfolio. Indicator has invested in the popular news-reading app Circa, mobile organization and ecommerce app Box.es, pay-as-you-go printing service LOB, business initiative management platform Shibumi, workflow collaboration startup Caplinked, "flashcards on steroids" startup Brainscape, social CRM startup Nimble and goal-reaching app Everest. Indicator is targeting a $20 million initial fund—and based on how much they raised in 2014, their goal looks attainable in the near future.
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