American Research and Development Corporation

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American Research and Development Corporation was a venture capital and private equity firm founded in 1946 by by Georges Doriot, the "father of venture capitalism"[1] (former dean of Harvard Business School), with Ralph Flanders and Karl Compton (former president of MIT).

The firm was originally founded to encourage private sector investments in businesses run by soldiers who were returning from World War II. ARDC's significance was primarily that it was the first institutional private equity investment firm that accepted money from sources other than wealthy families although it had several investment successes as well. [2]

ARDC is credited with the first major venture capital success story when its 1957 investment of $70,000 in Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) would be valued at over $355 million after the company's initial public offering in 1968 (representing a return of over 500 times on its investment and an annualized rate of return of 101%).[3]

Former employees of ARDC have gone on to found several prominent venture capital firms including Greylock Partners (founded in 1965 by Charlie Waite and Bill Elfers) and Morgan, Holland Ventures, the predecessor of Flagship Ventures (founded in 1982 by James Morgan). [4]

ARDC continued investing until 1971 with the retirement of Doriot.

[edit] References

  1. ^ WGBH Public Broadcasting Service, “Who made America?"-Georges Doriot”
  2. ^ The New Kings of Capitalism, Survey on the Private Equity industry
  3. ^ Joseph W. Bartlett, "What Is Venture Capital?"
  4. ^ Kirsner, Scott. "Venture capital's grandfather." The Boston Globe, April 6, 2008.