Alastair Goldfisher
Menlo Park, Calif.-based life sciences investor 5AM Ventures has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to raise $240 million for Fund IV. The firm, which primarily invests in early-stage life sciences, raised $220 million for Fund III, which closed in 2009, according to data from Thomson Reuters (publisher of peHUB). That fund invested in Relypsa, a Redwood City, Calif.-based developer of drugs to treat cardiovascular and renal disease and which is currently in registration for an expected $126.5 million IPO.
Paul Willard, former CMO of health records management company Practice Fusion and software developer Atlassian, has joined Subtraction Capital in San Francisco as partner. Subtraction Capital was founded in 2013 by Jason Portnoy, ex-CFO of Practice Fusion. The firm, which also has an office in Salt Lake City, makes venture investments across multiple stages.
Mohr Davidow Ventures, which was an investor in newly public Rocket Fuel, is getting close to kicking off fundraising efforts for its 10th venture fund, sister publication Venture Capital Journal reported.
Mobile-focused seed-stage investor Eniac Ventures announced today its second fund of $12. 9 million. The fund, which was raised from undisclosed high-net-worth individuals and entrepreneurs, focuses on adtech, consumer, enterprise and commerce sectors. The firm's first seed-stage fund was raised three years ago and boasts six exits.
Adrian Fenty, a special advisor to Andreessen Horowitz and a former mayor of Washington, D.C., has joined Perkins Coie LLP to work for the law firm's business development arm in Silicon Valley.
Entrepreneur Jason Calacanis announced today in his blog the closing of his first formal angel investing fund, called The LAUNCH Fund I, named after his conferences and events. The fund, which has already made investments, raised $250,000 each from David Sacks (founder and CEO of Yammer and with PayPal before that) and Calacanis to back winners of the LAUNCH Festival. Calacanis said in a blog post that the fund grew, thanks to investments from "a list of my good friends." He added, "We are leaving it up to the LPs to disclose that they’re in the fund, if they want to." Pehub previously reported that the size of the fund is $10 million.
Boston-based dunnhumby Ventures has launched today to make seed-stage investments in retail technology. Managing the fund is entrepreneur and angel investor Dave Balter, global head of investments at parent company dunnhumby. Balter, who has founded word-of-mouth marketing company BzzAgent (which was bought by dunnhumby) and other startups, currently serves as a venture partner at Boston Seed Capital and a mentor with TechStars. Balter told peHUB that the seed-stage fund amount is undisclosed, but he expects the fund will make 10 investments a year for three years, with average deal size and follow-ons between $250,000 and $500,000. The firm has already made five seed investments, including The Shelf and InfoScout.
Jordon Kong has joined Institutional Venture Partners as an associate, where she'll focus on later-stage IT deals with the digital media sector. Before she joined IVP, Kong worked within the Technology, Media, and Telecom investment banking group at Barclays.
Twitter is finally going to IPO; Zuck dispenses advice to the microblogging service about what to do and what not to do.
Morgenthaler Ventures today announced it closed its 10th fund with $175 million in commitments, exceeding its $150 million target, and will now go by the name Canvas Venture Fund to reflect its new focus on early stage tech deals.