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Today, IVP announces IVP XV, a $1.4 billion fund dedicated to investing in high-growth, later-stage technology companies. We announced the fund to our Limited Partners in February and closed it earlier this week. We’re grateful for the overwhelming support from our investors and appreciate their trust in our team and in our consistent later-stage strategy. Over the past 35 years, IVP has invested in over 300 companies, 101 of which have gone public, and generated an IRR of over 43.2%.
We’re proud of our performance, but the real heroes are the entrepreneurs we support. We only succeed if they succeed. We’ve been fortunate to work with visionary leaders including Dick Costolo (Twitter), Evan Spiegel (Snapchat), Drew Houston (Dropbox), Josh James (Domo), Scott Dietzen (Pure Storage), Jessica Alba and Brian Lee (The Honest Company), and many more. Our new fund means we get to do more of the same – support exceptional entrepreneurs who are working to build the next generation of great companies.
Why raise $1.4 billion?
The technology market is changing. There has been an explosion in seed financings coupled with companies waiting longer to go public. These two factors massively increase the opportunity set for later-stage private financings. We’re seeing more companies reach our growth stage faster than ever. Supercell, which we backed in early 2013, grew from zero to $3 billion in revenues in just three years. Zenefits, which we backed in 2014, increased revenues 20 times in one year and expanded from 15 to over 500 employees. Overall, the average private IVP portfolio company is growing at a staggering 209% annually. The quality of company in the later-stage market is higher than ever, and our new fund enables us to partner with the most promising entrepreneurs.
IVP is not just focused on investing in more hyper-growth companies; we’re also investing in our organization. Over the last year, we promoted Somesh Dash and Eric Liaw to General Partner, hired Tracy Hogan as CFO, added Roseanne Wincek as Vice President, and brought on Saydeah Howard as a dedicated talent and operational executive. We also opened a San Francisco office to get closer to our more than 15 portfolio companies located in the city. With our new fund, we’ll continue to expand our firm to help our companies with recruiting, international expansion, business strategy, operational scaling and preparing for additional financing, IPO or M&A events.
What’s our strategy?
IVP XV will invest between $10 and $100 million in 12 to 15 later-stage companies each year and continue to follow our core investment principles:
- Focused: Our team is 100% focused on finding and funding the most promising companies. We’re not a “Swiss Army knife” investor. We don’t invest in China, India, CleanTech, Biotech, or seed investments. We want to do one thing and one thing well – invest in 12 to 15 of the fastest growing later-stage technology opportunities each year.
Collaborative: We know that without great entrepreneurs we don’t have a business. We care deeply about our companies and work hard to help them succeed. We believe in backing passionate founders, supporting them through good and bad times, and celebrating their achievements when they win.
Supportive: The venture capital business is a service business. Our CEOs are clients and our portfolio companies are like family to us. We like to roll up our sleeves and help, but we also know that time is precious and an investor shouldn’t ever slow down a CEO. We specialize in helping with the unique needs of hyper-growth companies, including assistance with recruiting, strategy, product development and scaling operations. We strive to be the experienced and trusted counsel for our CEOs as they wrestle with important decisions such as additional equity financings, securing debt, evaluating M&A offers and prepping for an IPO. We deliver on this and then we get out of the way.
It’s a pleasure to announce IVP XV, but just like our CEOs, we know that fundraising is only a milestone, not the ultimate goal. We love working with exceptional entrepreneurs and we look forward to investing another $1.4 billion in the fastest growing later-stage technology companies of the future.