Greycroft Partners
 | |
| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Private equity |
| Founded | 2006 |
| Founder(s) | Alan Patricof, Dana Settle, and Ian Sigalow |
| Headquarters | New York, New York, United States and LA, California, United States |
| Products | Venture capital |
| Employees | 14 |
| Website | www.greycroftpartners.com |
Greycroft Partners is a venture capital firm focused on investments in early stage companies primarily in the digital media sector. Founded in 2006, Greycroft was formed based on two realizations. First, advances in technology have allowed companies to scale with less direct investment. Second, large venture funds have a tendency to over-capitalize early stage companies, eliminating many likely exit opportunities. This is not done in a malicious way, but it is the natural outcome of large fund economics. These two realizations to the creatation a new type of venture firm that was intentionally small but provided the network and access to rival any top-tier venture fund.Greycroft invests between $500,000 and $5 million at inception, and will increase on a staged basis to double that amount over time.
The firm raised its first fund with $75 million of investor commitments and has deployed that fund into 34 companies.[1] Greycroft Fund I is now and is now among the top performing venture capital funds of the last decade.
Greycroft closed its second fund in 2010 with an additional $130 million in capital. including many of the same investors from Fund I, as well as participation from leading institutions. The mission, team, and strategy remained the same.
Some notable exits include: Huffington Post,[2] Paid Content,[3] Pump Audio,[4] and Adenyo.[5] Also, notable companies in Greycroft's portfolio include Buddy Media, Collective Media, WideOrbit, Joyent, Usamp, Extreme Reach, Resonate Networks, Vitals (website), and Klout.
Greycroft was founded by venture capital pioneer Alan Patricof after leaving Apax Partners in 2005.[6] After spending thirty years building what would become Apax Partners, a multi-billion dollar private equity firm, Patricof returned to early stage investing in smaller transactions.[7][8][9]
The firm, which has offices in New York City and Los Angeles, was founded in 2006.
About Alan Patricof
Alan Patricof is the founder and managing director of Greycroft LLC. A longtime innovator and advocate for venture capital, Patricof entered the industry in its formative days with the creation of Patricof & Co. Ventures Inc., a predecessor to Apax Partners – today, one of the world’s leading private equity firms with over $40 billion under management. He stepped back from the daily administration and operational aspects of Apax Partners, LP in 2004 to concentrate on a group of small venture deals on its behalf, before forming Greycroft Partners in 2006.
With a 40-plus year career in venture capital, Patricof has been instrumental in growing the venture capital field from a base of high net-worth individuals to its position today with broad institutional backing, as well as playing a key role in the essential legislative initiatives that have guided its evolution. He has helped build and foster the growth of numerous major global companies, including, among others, America Online, Office Depot, Cadence Systems, Cellular Communications, Inc., Apple Computer, FORE Systems, NTL, IntraLinks, and Audible. He was also a founder and chairman of the board of New York magazine, which later acquired the Village Voice and New West magazine.
Patricof is active in the New York and Washington communities as a board member of TechnoServe, Trickly Program, Global Advisory Board of Endeavor, Applied Sciences NYC Advisory Board, and the Initiative for Global Development (IGD) Leadership Council. In 2007, he was appointed to the board of the Millennium Challenge Corporation by the President of the United States; he is currently serving his second term. From 1993 to 1995, he served as Chairman of the White House Conference on Small Business Commission.
Patricof holds a BS in Finance from Ohio State University and an MBA from Columbia University Graduate School of Business.
About Dana Settle
Dana Settle is a Founding Partner with Greycroft LLC, and she heads the firm’s west coast office out of Los Angeles.
Prior to Greycroft, Dana spent several years as a venture capitalist and advisor to startup companies in the Bay Area, including six years at Mayfield, where she focused on early stage companies in the mobile communications and consumer Internet markets.
Dana currently serves or observes on the boards of Greycroft’s investments in Fanhattan, Gamersfirst, GameSalad, Joyent, Maker Studios, Precision Demand, Pulse, TrunkClub, uSamp and WideOrbit. She also managed the firm’s investments in Digisynd (sold to Disney), ContentNext (sold to Guardian Media), MoVoxx (sold to Motricity), Sometrics (sold to American Express), and Sportgenic (sold to Glam).
Dana’s additional experience includes business development at Truveo (AOL), investment banking at Lehman Brothers and international business development at McCaw Cellular Communications. (AT&T)
Dana holds a BA in Finance and International Studies from the University of Washington and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
About Ian Sigalow
Ian Sigalow is a Co-Founder and Partner of Greycroft LLC.
Ian has been a venture capitalist since 2001, and has spent his entire career working with early stage technology companies. Over the last few years he has had a particular interest in the intersection of advertising, software, and mobility.
Ian currently oversees a number of Greycroft investments, including industry leaders such as Buddy Media, Collective, Extreme Reach, and NimbleTV. Prior to joining Greycroft, Ian founded StrongData Corporation, a pioneer in digital encryption, and spent several years as a venture capitalist with Boston Millennia Partners, where he focused on the Software, Wireless, and Internet sectors.
Ian’s past experience also includes investment banking in the technology group at Donaldson, Lufkin, and Jenrette and strategy consulting with the Arnold Business Strategy Group.
Ian holds a BS in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA from Columbia University Graduate School of Business.
References
- ↑ Patricof mulls second fund. Reuters Venture Capital Journal, December 1, 2008 Cached
- ↑ Patricof, Early Investor in AOL, Wins Again as Huffington Post Gets Sold. Bloomberg. Retrieved on 2013-08-09.
- ↑ Guardian Media Group Acquires Paid Content For $30 Million. TechCrunch (2008-07-11). Retrieved on 2013-08-09.
- ↑ Getty Images Acquires Pump Audio. Mashable.com (2007-06-20). Retrieved on 2013-08-09.
- ↑ Motricity To Acquire Mobile Advertising Firm Adenyo For Up To $150 Million - Proactiveinvestors (NA). Proactiveinvestors (2011-01-31). Retrieved on 2013-08-09.
- ↑ Patricof Goes Back To Early-Stage Investing. Reuters Buyouts, March 16, 2006 Cached
- ↑ Greycroft plays 'small ball' to score. The Deal, June 23, 2009
- ↑ World According to...Alan Patricof. Portfolio, Dec 04 2007
- ↑ Venture Capital’s Elders Say Think Small. New York Times, June 5, 2009
- Alan Patricof hails current VC environment. The Deal, June 4, 2009
- Patricof on 'R.I.P Good Times': DonÂ’t Burrow Into a Dark Hole. Forbes, October 10, 2008
External links
- Greycroft Partners (company website)
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