Somesh Dash and Eric Liaw Promoted to Principals
Menlo Park, CA – January 11, 2012 – Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), one of the premier later-stage venture capital and growth equity firms, is pleased to announce that Somesh Dash and Eric Liaw have been promoted to Principals. These promotions recognize their contributions to IVP and highlight the firm’s continued momentum in strengthening its investment team.
“Somesh and Eric have worked incredibly hard and have produced fantastic results for IVP,” said Todd Chaffee, General Partner at IVP. “They are an integral part of our investment team, and we are thrilled to announce their promotions.”
Somesh Dash joined IVP in March of 2005 and focuses primarily on later-stage investments in Internet, software, wireless, and technology-enabled services companies.
“IVP seeks to identify and back premier late-stage companies and management teams,” said Somesh Dash. “I’m incredibly excited about working with the top entrepreneurs in the technology marketplace.”
Eric Liaw joined IVP in early 2011 and focuses primarily on later-stage investments in high growth companies across a variety of sectors including enterprise software, Internet, and mobile.
“IVP has backed many innovative companies such as Dropbox, HomeAway, LivingSocial, Twitter, and Zynga,” said Eric Liaw. “I’m thrilled to be part of this incredible team, and it is an honor to partner with so many dynamic market leaders.”
Prior to joining IVP, Somesh worked in Credit Suisse’s Technology Investment Banking Group. Earlier, Somesh worked for Luxmi Capital, an early stage venture capital fund focused on digital media investments. He also worked in the Corporate Development for Sony Entertainment Television in India. Somesh earned a B.S. in Business Administration from the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley and an M.B.A. from Stanford University.
Prior to joining IVP, Eric was with Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV). At TCV, Eric completed minority and control investments in private and public companies across the Internet and software sectors. Earlier in his career, Eric was a member of Morgan Stanley’s Technology Investment Banking Group. Eric also held technical and marketing positions with Trend Micro and Canon Software Publishing. Eric holds a B.A. in Economics with a minor in Computer Science and an M.S. in Management Science and Engineering, both from Stanford University.
IVP’s investment team is focused on identifying later-stage growth companies in the Internet & Digital Media, Enterprise IT, and Mobile & Communications sectors. In 2012, the firm will continue to pursue additional investments in rapidly-growing technology companies.
About Institutional Venture Partners (IVP)
With $3 billion of committed capital, Institutional Venture Partners (IVP) is one of the premier later-stage venture capital and growth equity firms in the United States. The partnership is currently investing IVP XIII, a $750 million later-stage fund focused on investments in rapidly growing technology and media companies. Founded in 1980, IVP has invested in over 300 companies, 89 of which have gone public. IVP is one of the top performing firms in the industry and has a 30 year IRR of 43.2%. IVP specializes in venture growth investments, industry rollups, founder liquidity transactions, and select public market investments. Since its inception, IVP investments include such notable companies as ArcSight (HPQ), Aspect Communications, ComScore (SCOR), Concur Technologies (CNQR), Digital River (DRIV), Dropbox, HomeAway (AWAY), Juniper Networks (JNPR), Kayak, LegalZoom, LivingSocial, MySQL (ORCL), Netflix (NFLX), Polycom (PLCM), Seagate (STX), Shazam, Synchronoss (SNCR), Tivo (TIVO), Twitter, and Zynga (ZNGA). For more information, visit www.ivp.com or follow IVP on Twitter at @ivp.