Charles River Ventures Announces New $500 Million Venture Fund.Business Editors WALTHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--February 24, 2000 Charles River Charles River River, eastern Massachusetts, U.S. The longest river wholly in the state, it flows into Boston Bay after a course of about 80 mi (130 km). Navigable for about 7 mi (11 km), its estuary separates the cities of Boston and Cambridge. Partnership X Brings Total Funds Invested to More Than $1 Billion Charles River Ventures, one of the nation's leading early-stage venture capital firms Name Location Founding date Managing Partners/Directors Specialty Capital managed 5AM Ventures Menlo Park, CA; Waltham, MA 2002 John Diekman, PhD (managing partner), Scott Rocklage, PhD (managing partner), Andrew Schwab (managing partner) life sciences $200M [1] , today announced it has raised Charles River Partnership X, a $500 million venture fund. With Charles River's 10th fund, the firm's principals have raised almost $700 million in the past 18 months, bringing total funds invested to more than $1 billion. Fueled by the rapid growth of emerging Internet companies, Charles River Partnership X will focus on investments in business-to-business eMarketplaces, e-commerce and information services See Information Systems. as well as data communications data communications, application of telecommunications technology to the problem of transmitting data, especially to, from, or between computers. In popular usage, it is said that data communications make it possible for one computer to "talk" with another. and networking equipment, software and services. These are high growth market sectors in which Charles River partners have deep domain expertise and hands-on operational experience - key characteristics sought by entrepreneurs to help them build significant, profitable companies in Internet time In the early days of the public Internet, Internet time referred to the breakneck speed with which companies scrambled to gain traffic and market share on the Web. A new business could come and go within a matter of weeks. . "The Charles River approach is based on a 30-year track record of early-stage investing supported with a corporate development focus and consultative practice that respects the unique cultures of entrepreneurs," said Rick Burnes, co-founder and general partner of Charles River Ventures. "This proven approach has thrived through the technology industry's two most significant curves - the growth of the physical Internet infrastructure and the growth of Internet Commerce." Charles River Ventures has already committed to several investments in the Charles River Partnership X fund, including: - GlobalFoodExchange.com (www.GlobalFoodExchange.com), an Internet business-to-business marketplace for the global food industry - River Delta Networks (http://www.riverdelta.com) a provider of solutions for next-generation broadband service providers building carrier-class networks - Voter.com (www.voter.com) - a bi-partisan political Website dedicated to using the Internet to promote a more active and informed electorate "CRV helps us to execute our strategy more effectively," said Mark Moore, president, GlobalFoodExchange.com. "They provide relationships, credibility, and knowledge that enable us to move forward more quickly as well as increase our competitiveness." Charles River Ventures Limited Partners Since its founding in 1970, Charles River Ventures has focused on enabling non-profit organizations, such as the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Welcome Trust, Harvard University Harvard University, mainly at Cambridge, Mass., including Harvard College, the oldest American college. Harvard College Harvard College, originally for men, was founded in 1636 with a grant from the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. and other organizations, to benefit from the high returns generated from its venture funds. In addition to non-profit organizations, Charles River Ventures provides value to its portfolio by accepting investments from strategic partners with expertise and contacts in target market sectors. In Charles River Partnership X, more than 70% of the capital raised has come from a variety of non-profit endeavors whose causes are respected by the General Partners of the firm. About Charles River Ventures With market-leading trademark investments, such as Be Free (Nasdaq:BFRE BFRE Besoin en Fonds de Roulement d'Exploitation (French: Working Capital Requirement for Exploitation) ), Flycast (Nasdaq:FCST FCST Forecast FCST Federal Council for Science and Technology , then acquired by CMGI CMGI Commonly Maintained Grounds Infrastructures CMGI College Marketing Group Information (Services) ), Vignette (Nasdaq:VIGN VIGN Vignette Corporation (stock abbreviation, AMEX) ), CIENA (Nasdaq:CIEN CIEN Ciena Corporation (stock symbol) ) and iBasis (Nasdaq:IBAS), Charles River Ventures (www.crv.com) is one of the industry's preeminent early stage venture capital firms. The firm focuses on funding and guiding young companies that are building the Internet infrastructure and the businesses that run on it. Beyond pure financial investments, Charles River Ventures helps build companies that are first in - and first to - their markets by providing the corporate development guidance, expertise and experience necessary to help young companies accelerate time to market to become tomorrow's market leaders. Since its establishment, Charles River has provided capital and guidance to more than 250 companies. |
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