Norwest Venture Partners

Norwest Venture Partners
Private
Industry Venture capital
Founded 1961
Headquarters Palo Alto, California, United States
Total assets $5 billion [1]
Number of employees
 80+ (2013)
Website www.nvp.com

Norwest Venture Partners (NVP) is a global venture and growth equity investment firm.

History

Norwest Venture Partners traces its roots back to 1961 with the formation of the Northwest Venture Fund, a private equity and venture capital affiliate of Norwest, a midwestern bank based in Minneapolis that merged with Wells Fargo in 1998. [2] In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Minneapolis was an early site for both venture capital and high technology business:

-The VC industry was active with the formation of the first Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) and First Midwest Capital Corporation. -In 1957, Control Data Corporation, a pioneering supercomputer company, was founded by William Norris. Two years later Norris was instrumental in the formation of the Northwest Growth Fund and the firm was active in the Minneapolis high tech industry.

The Northwest Growth Fund grew under the leadership of CEO Robert Zicarelli including the opening of an office in Silicon Valley. Zicarelli retired in 1988 and was succeeded by Daniel Haggerty who retired in the 1990s.[3] George J, Still, Jr. and Promod Haque took over as Managing Partners in 1994.

Investments

NVP has funded Lending Club, Blue Jeans Network, MobileIron, Lumosity, FireEye, RetailMeNot, Verio, Web.com, Jigsaw, Rackspace, Persistent Systems, Cerent, Documentum, AdMeld, Clairmail, PeopleSoft,[4][5] Polycom, Shape Security and Tivoli Systems (acquired by IBM).

Investment team

The firm’s U.S. investment team includes Robert Abbott, Sonya Brown, Jeffrey Crowe, Casper de Clercq, Vab Goel, Joshua Goldman, Promod Haque, Matthew Howard, Dr. Ryan A. Harris, Jon Kossow, Sergio Monsalve and George J. Still, Jr. The firm’s India investment team and advisors include Promod Haque, Niren Shah, Sohil Chand and Mohan Kumar. Dror Nahumi focuses on investments in Israel.

Partners Promod Haque,[6] George J. Still, Jr. and Matthew Howard[7] have been named to the Forbes Midas list since 2001 and 2006, respectively.

References

  1. ↑ Norwest Raises $1.2 Billion in Venture Capital. DealBook, May 13 2014.
  2. ↑ Richard Florida (Carnegie Mellon University) and Martin Kenney (Ohio State University). Venture Capital and High Technology Entrepreneurship. Elsevier Science Publishing Co, 1988
  3. ↑ EXECUTIVE CHANGES: Norwest Venture Capital Management. New York Times, November 28, 1988
  4. ↑
  5. ↑ Cisco Systems to acquire Cerent Corporation
  6. ↑ Promod Haque Forbes Midas List 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001
  7. ↑ Matthew Howard - Forbes Midas List 2008, 2007, 2006

External links