PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Norwest Venture Partners, a leading venture and growth equity investment firm, today announced it has closed its largest fund to date, Norwest Venture Partners XV, LP. The new $2 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 XV, which brings the firm’s total capital commitments to more than $9.5 billion, closes on the heels of a record two years, as 23 of the firm’s portfolio companies achieved notable liquidity events.
Norwest Venture Partners XV follows Norwest Venture Partners XIV, a $1.5 billion fund, which closed in February 2018. Since then, Norwest has made nearly 50 new investments across a range of stages and industries, as well as hired and promoted several investment partners.
Proven Diversification Strategy
For over a decade, Norwest has expanded its growth equity practice to augment and diversify its strong record of venture investments. Both practices at Norwest invest out of a single, global fund and contribute significantly to the overall success of the firm. The investments are represented by leading portfolio companies across the consumer, healthcare and enterprise sectors in North America, India, and Israel.
Exits and Investments
Norwest’s exit success and investment pace reached new highs over the past 24 months. The firm saw nearly 50 new investments, 23 initial public offerings and portfolio company acquisitions across the firm’s investment sectors, including companies such as:
- Consumer Exits – PCA Skin, Spotify, The Learning Experience, Turnitin, Uber
- Enterprise Exits – 6 River Systems, Adaptive Insights, Avetta, Cority, Glint, Mist Systems, TRUSTID, Velostrata
- Healthcare Exits – Health Catalyst, Silk Road Medical
- India Exits – Appnomic, Capillary, CRMNext, ElasticRun, Manthan, Zenoti
CEO Partnerships at the Heart of Norwest’s Success
Over the past 60 years, Norwest has partnered with hundreds of founders and CEOs, and believes that a combination of patience, courage, empathy, and conviction are essential when helping CEOs build their companies for the long term. This guiding principle uniquely positions Norwest as a strong partner for today’s leaders and their teams, working together to build great businesses in fast-evolving markets.
“We have had many high profile exits in the last two years,” said Jon Kossow, managing partner, Norwest. “As our portfolio continues to grow and deliver strong returns, we are looking forward to partnering with the next group of founders who will change the status quo in consumer, healthcare, and technology.”
“Our founders and CEOs are at the heart of everything we do,” said Jeff Crowe, managing partner at Norwest. “To us, that means not only investing capital, but also time and resources to help our leaders and their organizations grow. We’re proud of the founder community we’ve built at Norwest and look forward to partnering with strong innovators for years to come.”
Norwest is also a strong investing partner for companies founded and run by women across many diverse industries, and has invested in 28 female-founded companies to date. Notable female-founded or female-led investments include Birdies, HoneyBook, Madison Reed, Minted, Modsy, Policygenius, Ritual, Science Exchange, Senreve and Talkspace, among others.
New Partners and Promotions
Over the past 18 months, Norwest has invested in promoting and hiring key partners. On the growth equity team, Rob Arditi was promoted to general partner. On the venture consumer team, Ed Yip and Lisa Wu were promoted to partner. Two additional promotions on the growth equity team include Stew Campbell and Ran Ding to principal.
Norwest also made a new hire in mid-2018 with the addition of Priti Youssef Choksi, who joined the consumer team as a partner. She brings over 20 years of experience to the firm from strategic roles at Facebook and Google.
“We’re proud of the strong investment team we’ve built. From our leadership in the health technology space where we continue to deliver strong returns, to our growing portfolio of consumer enthusiast brands and enterprise companies, we are evolving with the market and have bright new talent to help our entrepreneurs lead their industries,” said Promod Haque, senior managing partner at Norwest.
About Norwest Venture Partners
Norwest is a leading venture and growth equity investment firm managing more than $9.5 billion in capital. Since our inception, we have invested in more than 600 companies and partner with over 150 active companies currently in 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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