CRV (venture capital firm) explained

CRV
Type:Private
Industry:Venture capital
Foundation:1970
Location:Palo Alto, California, United States
Products:Investments
Assets:$4.3 billion
Num Employees:20+

CRV is a venture capital firm focused on early-stage investments in technology. The firm was founded in 1970 to commercialize research that came out of MIT. Its name comes from the Boston area Charles River.

History

The firm has raised over $4.3 billion since inception across 18 funds. Upon closing of the 16th fund, the firm rebranded to CRV.[1] Prior to that, CRV's 15th fund closed in February 2012 with $375 million of investor commitments.[2] CRV's 14th fund raised $320 million of commitments.[3]

In 2013, it purchased a large portion of Pebble Technology for $15 million and is credited as the primary reason why Pebble was sold to Fitbit in December 2016. This netted CRV nearly $40 million.[4]

In 2024, CRV returned 275 million dollars from the 500 million it had raised in its current fund back to investors, stating that their focus would shift away from late-stage investments and toward the early stage.[5]

Among CRV's portfolio companies are Aveksa,[6] mabl,[7] OneLogin,[8] Stella,[9] Sybase,[10] Yammer,[11] and Zendesk.[12]

References

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Now That Charles River Ventures Has Closed Its 16th Fund, It Wants To Be Called CRV. Lawler. Ryan. TechCrunch. 14 July 2014 . 2016-07-15.
  2. http://www.pehub.com/137902/charles-river-raises-a-375m-fifteenth-fund-for-early-stage-investing/ Charles River Raises A $375M Fifteenth Fund For Early Stage Investing
  3. https://techcrunch.com/2009/03/30/charles-river-ventures-raises-320-million-for-its-fourteenth-fund/ Charles River Ventures Raises $320 Million For Its Fourteenth Fund
  4. Web site: Orlowski. Andrew. Who killed Pebble? Easy: The vulture capitalists. www.theregister.co.uk.
  5. News: Griffith . Erin . Oct 2, 2024 . A Venture Capital Firm Does Something Rare: Give Money Back . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20241002100751/https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/02/technology/crv-vc-fund-returning-money.html . Oct 2, 2024 . Oct 2, 2024 . New York Times.
  6. Web site: McBride. Ryan. Investors Back Growing Bay State Software Firms Aveksa and Apparent Networks in Pair of Series C Financings. xconomy. 5 April 2013.
  7. News: Lardinois. Frederic. With $10M in funding, Mabl brings machine learning to software testing. TechCrunch. February 21, 2018.
  8. News: Gage. Deborah. OneLogin Picks Up $13 Million to Manage Online Corporate Identities. Wall Street Journal. October 3, 2013.
  9. Web site: This week in N.Y.C. funding news: Ellevest, Ripple, KeyMe - New York Business Journal. 2016-09-16.
  10. https://www.nytimes.com/1987/08/25/business/business-people-sybase-president-gains-the-confidence-of-apple.html Sybase President Gains The Confidence of Apple
  11. Web site: Geron. Tomio. Before $1.2 Billion Deal, Yammer Was Side Project: Largest Investor George Zachary. www.forbes.com.
  12. Web site: Konrad. Alex. Charles River Ventures Wins Big On Zendesk's IPO, But For Boston Venture It's Bittersweet. www.forbes.com.

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