Firm Raises NVP XI for Early to Late Stage Venture and Growth Equity Investments Globally.
Norwest Venture Partners (NVP), a leading global venture and growth equity investment firm, today announced the formation of its most recent fund, Norwest Venture Partners XI, LP. The $1.2 billion fund will target early to late stage venture and growth equity investments across a wide range of sectors and geographies. The addition of this new fund, the largest fund the firm has closed to date, brings NVP's total capital and commitments to more than $3.7 billion. NVP XI follows the $650 million NVP X Fund, which closed in 2006.
NVP has more than 48 years of success backing companies with significant long-term growth opportunities. The firm has funded over 450 companies since inception and has demonstrated a strong track record producing premier investment returns during differing capital market environments. NVP focuses on the following investment areas: information technology, business services, financial services, infrastructure, technology enabled services and consumer.
“The closing of NVP XI will enable us to further expand our growth by stage, region and sector. NVP is a global, multi-stage firm dedicated to both domestic and international investments, and we believe that raising one global fund is a distinct advantage for our portfolio companies,” said Promod Haque, managing partner, NVP. “NVP partners are committed to each investment in the portfolio, regardless of the location or stage, and they all have a vested interest in making each NVP company successful. This philosophy is extended to the firm’s global offices, and we plan to continue this philosophy as we invest out of NVP XI.”
Since the closing of the last NVP fund, the firm added three investment professionals to its U.S. venture team and began bolstering its domestic growth equity practice. NVP hired three U.S. growth equity investment professionals this past year and continues to expand aggressively in this area.
Globally, NVP India hired five investment professionals to focus on venture and growth equity investments and opened offices in Mumbai and Bangalore. In Israel, NVP brought on two investment professionals and opened an office in Herzelia.
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Recent NVP exits and transactions include the initial public offering of Rackspace (NYSE: RAX), one of the few technology IPOs in 2008 with a market capitalization today of $2.2 billion, and LifeSize Communications, which was recently acquired by Logitech (NASDAQ: LOGI). Other notable exits over the past few years include Qumranet (acquired by Red Hat), Yipes (acquired by Reliance/Flag Telecom), Open-Silicon (acquired by Unicorn Investment Bank) and SideStep (acquired by Kayak).
“We believe now is a great time to invest, and we are seeing significant opportunities amidst a challenging economic environment – particularly in growth equity and in emerging markets such as India and China,” added Haque. “The growing significance of globalization, cloud computing, consumer driven technology and mobility are some of the key mega trends that are converging and creating a promising investment climate. We will continue to partner with leading entrepreneurs to build great businesses and we’re eager to fuel the growth of several companies in the years ahead.”
About Norwest Venture Partners
Norwest Venture Partners (NVP) is a global venture and growth equity investment firm that manages more than $3.7 billion in capital. It has offices in Palo Alto, California, Mumbai and Bangalore, India and Herzelia, Israel. NVP makes early to late stage venture and growth equity investments in U.S. and global companies across a wide range of sectors including: information technology, business services, financial services, infrastructure, technology enabled services and consumer. NVP has actively partnered with entrepreneurs to build great businesses for more than 48 years and has funded over 450 companies since inception.
Notable investments include Actel Corporation, Airespace (acquired by Cisco Systems), Brocade, Cerent (acquired by Cisco Systems), Corio (acquired by IBM), Cray Research, Documentum (acquired by EMC), Extreme Networks, Forte Software (acquired by Sun Microsystems), NSE (National Stock Exchange of India), OnMobile (NSE: OnMobile), Open-Silicon (acquired by Unicorn Investment Bank), PeopleSoft (acquired by Oracle), Polycom, Qumranet (acquired by Red Hat), Rackspace (NYSE:RAX), Shriram City Union Finance, Siara Systems (acquired by Redback Networks), SideStep (acquired by Kayak), Spinnaker Networks (acquired by Network Appliance), SPSS (acquired by IBM), Tivoli Systems (acquired by IBM), Transaction Systems Architects (Nasdaq: ACIW), Verio (acquired by NTT), Winphoria Networks (acquired by Motorola) and Yipes (acquired by Reliance/Flag Telecom).
For more information, please visit www.nvp.com.
