Venture Capital News
Venture Capital Takes Root in Oklahoma
The Oklahoma Capital Investment Board (OCIB) has set aside $12.7 million as a reserve for possible losses from venture fund investments originated in the late '90s and other development loan guarantees. This was done through the sale of state tax credits provided by the Oklahoma Legislature for this purpose. This is the first time the Board has created a reserve in its 14-year history.
Venture capital can make a big difference to an economy, as demonstrated by recent impact studies conducted by Applied Economics, of Phoenix, and the Oklahoma City Finance Department. The jobs and taxes produced as a result of OCIB investments have helped create a $952 million economic impact in the State.
While this impact is large, the cost to the state has been small. The Board has produced these results at an out-of-pocket cost to the state of only $12.7 million since inception of the program in 1992.
OCIB has pioneered the idea of regional private equity -- attracting professional venture capital to a region where this type of investment had been sparse. While Oklahoma has many hearty souls who risk large sums every day, most stake their claim in the energy business. It is what they know. But the universe is expanding.
Some 26 venture capital funds are now active in the state, many with an investment from OCIB, the state's organization for catalyzing the growth of the local venture capital industry.
Local companies are finding capital. Oklahoma City-based Premier Parks (renamed Six Flags), with venture capital funding backed by OCIB, grew to become the nation's largest theme park company. And angel capital is making a mark. Novazyme, an Oklahoma startup launched with less than $10 million of angel capital in 1999, was sold to Genzyme in 2001 for $225 million.
The Board has committed to two new funds in 2006. Mesa Capital Partners Oklahoma invests in small businesses, while Oklahoma Life Science Fund II supports seed stage medical and biotech firms. Additional investments are under consideration.
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Mayfield Fund Hires Navin Chaddha as Managing Director
Representatives of Mayfield Fund announced Wednesday the addition of Navin Chaddha as Managing Director. Navin has significant entrepreneurial, venture and corporate experience in the software, communications, and consumer sectors as well as a successful track record of investing in India since the late 1990s.
Navin is Mayfield's eighth investing Managing Director. He brings over 15 years of technology industry experience to Mayfield. Most recently, as a Partner at Gabriel Venture Partners, he focused on software, applications, and networking investments in the U.S. and led investment activities in India. His notable investment successes in India include three companies that went public on the Bombay Stock Exchange: Allsec Technologies, IL&FS Investsmart and Provogue. Prior to that, he served as entrepreneur-in-residence and venture partner at Mobius Venture Capital leading their cross-border US-India investment efforts.
Navin spent several years at Microsoft in various management roles, during which he co-led investments in the communications industry including three companies that went public on NASDAQ: Akamai, Northpoint Communications, and Rhythms NetConnections. Navin is a serial entrepreneur and founder of three companies, including VXtreme, a streaming media software company, which was acquired by Microsoft and is the foundation of Windows Media. He was also the co-founder of iBeam Broadcasting that went public on NASDAQ.
Navin is a charter member of The Indus Entrepreneurs Organization (TiE), the Asia America Multi-technology Association (AAMA) and a Global Leader of Tomorrow Member of the World Economic Forum. Navin holds a Master of Science degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University, where he was awarded the Stanford Graduate and IBM Fellowships, and a Bachelor of Technology degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Delhi, India where he received the Director's medal for graduating at the top his class and was recently honored with the prestigious IIT distinguished alumni award. He also holds over 35 technology patents.
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Elie Wurtman Joins Benchmark Capital As General Partner
Representatives of Benchmark Capital, a leading early-stage high-technology venture capital firm, announced Wednesday that Elie Wurtman has joined the firm as a general partner in Israel.
Mr. Wurtman is a successful entrepreneur and venture investor. He spent the last three years as chief executive officer of JVP Studio, an Israeli-based venture capital firm, where he focused on early-stage consumer and media investments. He led investments in several innovative companies, including Double Fusion, Game Array and Funtactix.
Prior to joining the venture capital community, Mr. Wurtman was the chief executive officer and co-founder of deltathree.com, a provider of VoIP products and services, which he led to a successful IPO on NASDAQ in 1999. Additionally, Mr. Wurtman was on the co-founding teams of Drive Diagnostics, TTR Technologies (acquired by Macrovision), Ambient (Nasdaq: ABTG) and NomadIQ (acquired by OmniSky).
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The Sterling Group, L.P. Completes Acquisition of Roofing Supply Group
Representatives of The Sterling Group, L.P. ("Sterling"), a Houston-based private equity firm, announced Thursday that it has finalized the acquisition of a majority interest in the entities comprising the Roofing Supply Group ("RSG").
Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, RSG is one of the largest wholesale distributors of roofing supplies and related materials in the United States. Through its network of 55 branches in 21 states, RSG provides one-step distribution services from the roofing product manufacturers to roofing contractors, home builders, retailers, and other end users.
Ron Pugh, founder of RSG, started the first branch in Houston in 1981. He was joined by Vin Perella and Rodney Burns, who opened the second branch in 1984, and then later by Dale Lowe to form the core management team and majority shareholders of RSG. Vin Perella has been named CEO of RSG at the closing of the acquisition, and Ron Pugh and Dale Lowe will remain active with RSG as board members and consultants to the company.
The acquisition was financed primarily with equity from Sterling Group Partners II, L.P. and its limited partners, as well as significant reinvestment by the RSG management team.