PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Norwest Venture Partners, a premier multi-stage investment firm, today announced it has closed its largest fund to date, Norwest Venture Partners XIV, LP. The new $1.5 billion fund targets disruptive and market-leading companies from seed to late-stage across consumer, enterprise and healthcare sectors. The launch of Norwest Venture Partners XIV, which brings the firm’s total capital commitments to more than $7.5 billion, closes on the heels of a record two years, as 30 of the firm’s portfolio companies achieved notable liquidity events.
Norwest Venture Partners XIV follows Norwest Venture Partners XIII, a $1.2 billion fund, which closed in January 2016. Since then, Norwest has made 80 new and follow-on investments across diverse stages and sectors, hired and promoted key partners, expanded its footprint in San Francisco, and enhanced its portfolio services platform to support the firm’s growing network of companies.
Successful Diversification Strategy Leads to Exit Momentum
Nine years ago, Norwest added a growth equity practice to complement its existing venture team and hired Jon Kossow to lead and build out the growth equity investment team and portfolio. Both venture capital and growth equity are now significant contributors to Norwest’s notable gains over the last several years.
“In the mid-2000s, we deployed a strategy of diversification and that strategy has worked very well for us,” said Promod Haque, senior managing partner at Norwest Venture Partners. “To keep pace with the strong growth of the firm, we have promoted Jon Kossow from general partner to managing partner.”
Kossow has 20 years of investing experience and is focused on growth equity investments across a wide range of sectors. Kossow serves alongside existing managing partners Promod Haque and Jeff Crowe. Kossow’s promotion to managing partner is detailed in a separate announcement issued today.
Other Promotions
Lisa Wu, detailed in a separate announcement today, has been promoted to partner on the venture capital team at Norwest. She joined the firm in 2012, and focuses on consumer internet, digital commerce, and next generation marketplace opportunities. Lisa spent the first part of her career at Norwest spearheading investments in the New York area, where she sourced Jet.com (acquired by Walmart.com for $3.3 billion). She is also an investor in Ritual, a women’s health brand, and has contributed to Norwest’s investment in Opendoor and Grove Collaborative.
Firm Expansion
In March of 2018, Norwest will triple its footprint with the opening of its new South Park office. The new location enables Norwest to work more closely with entrepreneurs based in San Francisco, continue to serve existing portfolio companies headquartered in the city, expand its CEO impact programs, and continue to offer a breadth of community building activities to its portfolio.
Over the last year, Norwest has expanded its investment team with the hiring of new partners Parker Barrile (formerly LinkedIn) and Scott Beechuk (formerly Salesforce) as partners.
Norwest also furthered its commitment to being a founder-first investment firm by expanding its portfolio services advisory resources to support the firm’s growing network of CEOs and executives in the areas of talent and retention, people advisory, business development, public relations, marketing, and community.
“Our success is predicated on building deep and trusted relationships with passionate entrepreneurs and helping them on their journeys to build sustainable, mission-driven businesses,” said Jeff Crowe, managing partner at Norwest Venture Partners. “Our new fund helps us carry on this tradition and enables us to reach even more entrepreneurs.”
Exits and Investments
Norwest’s exit success and investment pace reached record highs during the past 24 months, tallying 80 new and follow-on investments and 30 initial public offerings and acquisitions of portfolio companies spanning all of the firm’s investment sectors, including:
- Growth Equity Exits - Clarus Commerce, Kendra Scott Design, PCA SKIN, Rainmaker Multifamily
- Consumer Exits - Jet.com, RetailMeNot, Turn
- Enterprise Exits - Apigee, Avere, Fireglass, Palerra, Ravello Systems, ShotSpotter, Skyward
- Healthcare Exits - iCardiac, iRhythm Technologies, Capsugel, Crossover Health
- India Exits - Borqs, Cholamandalam Finance, Indusind Bank, RBL Bank, Thyrocare, Yatra
Active portfolio companies, including:
- Growth Equity Investments - ACL, Appriss, Avetta, Cority, Infutor, Kendra Scott Design, Rainmaker Hospitality, The Learning Experience (TLE), Turnitin, and Wine Access
- Consumer Investments - Button, Casper, Common, Grove Collaborative, IFTTT, Madison Reed, Minted, Modsy, Opendoor, Policygenius, Ritual, Spotify, Talkspace, Topo Athletic, Uber, and Udemy
- Enterprise Investments - 6 River Systems, 8th Wall, Adaptive Insights, Aporeto, Bluecore, BlueJeans Network, CognitiveScale, Engagio, Exabeam, Glint, Karat, Leanplum, Legion, Mist, ProsperWorks, Rallyteam, SlashNext and Socrates.ai
- Healthcare Investments - CareCloud, ClearDATA, Health Catalyst, Omada Health, Qventus, Science Exchange, TigerText and VisitPay; healthcare growth equity investments include such companies as Blue Cloud and Rivermend Health
- India Investments - Capillary, Manthan, NSE, PepperFry, Quikr, Swiggy
About Norwest Venture Partners
Norwest is a premier multi-stage investment firm managing more than $7.5 billion in capital. Since our inception, we have invested in more than 600 companies and partner with over 140 active companies across our venture and growth equity portfolio. The firm invests in early to late stage companies across a wide range of sectors with a focus on consumer, enterprise, and healthcare. We offer a deep network of connections, operating experience, and a wide range of impactful services to help CEOs and founders scale their businesses. Norwest has offices in Palo Alto and San Francisco, with subsidiaries in India and Israel. For more information, please visit www.nvp.com. Follow Norwest on Twitter @NorwestVP.
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