Venture capital firms: L.A.-based, ranked by capital under management.EXECUTIVE SUMMARY RUSTIC Canyon canyon Very narrow, deep valley cut by a river through resistant rock and having steep, almost vertical sides. Canyons occur most often in arid or semiarid regions. Some canyons (e.g., the Grand Canyon) are spectacular natural features. See also submarine canyon. tops the venture capital list with $720 million in total capital under management. It is followed by No. 2 GRP GRP Group GRP Group (file name extension) GRP Glass Reinforced Plastic GRP Gastrin-Releasing Peptide (biology) GRP Gross Rating Point (advertising) Partners and No. 3 Clearstone Venture Partners Clearstone Venture Partners is an early stage venture capital firm focused on IT investing with offices in Santa Monica, CA, Menlo Park, CA, and Mumbai, India. Founded in 1997, as Idealab Capital Partners, Clearstone is responsible for the early-stage funding of many successful , which each reported $650 million in capital under management. GRP ranked second on the basis of having invested in more new projects last year than Clearstone. AIG AIG addressee indicator group (US DoD) AIG American International Group, Inc AiG Answers in Genesis (religious group in defense of Scripture) AIG Artificial Intelligence Group AIG Australian Industry Group SunAmerica Ventures, No. 1 last year, fell three spots to No. 4, after reporting $600 million in total capital managed. That's down $150 million from the previous year. The firm is focusing more on later-stage and growth investments rather than the early and mid-stage investments it made in the past. Overall, the 15 largest 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] based in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. County manage $4.6 billion and have invested in more than 450 projects. The Business Journal's venture capital list has been restructured to include only firms headquartered in Los Angeles County, excluding those in Orange County. THE PACESETTER RUSTIC CANYON PARTNERS THE Santa Monica-based firm currently manages two funds with combined capital totaling $720 million. Its first fund was formed in 1999 with $550 million and an investment life through 2007. It also manages a $170 million fund with an investment life through 2008. As an active investor, Rustic Canyon holds a board seat on each of its portfolio companies and works closed on strategic and organizational development, as well as financial planning Financial planning Evaluating the investing and financing options available to a firm. Planning includes attempting to make optimal decisions, projecting the consequences of these decisions for the firm in the form of a financial plan, and then comparing future performance against . Within information technology, the firm's primary investment base, Managing Partner Tom Unterman said application software is the most active sector. "We look for rapid growth situations, most of which is in technology." Recently funded companies include Intrepid Learning Solutions, ePartners, Gluecode Software, Practice Technologies and Azaire Networks. The firm has investments ranging from $3 million to $5 million in these companies. One of Rustic Canyon's first investments, PeopleSupport PeopleSupport Inc. (NASDAQ: PSPT) is a US-based offshore multinational business process outsourcing (BPO) company that provides customer management services, transcription and captioning, and back office support. , went public in 2004. This year Rustic Canyon expects to make five or six investments in new companies, in addition to three to five investments in companies already funded. It expects up to five exits this year. In addition to its local headquarters, Rustic Canyon has offices in the Bay Area and Seattle Seattle (sēăt`əl), city (1990 pop. 516,259), seat of King co., W Wash., built on seven hills, between Elliott Bay of Puget Sound and Lake Washington; inc. 1869. . Investments are dispersed dis·perse v. dis·persed, dis·pers·ing, dis·pers·es v.tr. 1. a. To drive off or scatter in different directions: The police dispersed the crowd. b. evenly along the West Coast.
Rank Firm (Ranking in 2004) Capital
* name (millions)
* address * total capital
1 Rustic Canyon Partners (2) $720
2425 Olympic Blvd., Suite 6050 West
Santa Monica 90404
2 GRP Partners (3) 650
2121 Avenue of the Stars, Suite 1630
Los Angeles 90067
3 Clearstone Venture Partners (4) 650
1351 Fourth St., Fourth Floor
Santa Monica 90401
4 AIG SunAmerica Ventures (1) 600
1 SunAmerica Center, 38th Floor
Los Angeles 90067
5 Palomar Ventures (6) 525
100 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 450
Santa Monica 90401
6 Kline Hawkes & Co. (5) 300
11726 San Vicente Blvd., Suite 300
Los Angeles 90049
7 Pacific Venture Group (7) 210
16830 Ventura Blvd., Suite 244
Encino 91436
8 Smart Technology Ventures (9) 200
1801 Century Park West, Fifth Floor
Los Angeles 90067
9 Wedbush (11) (3) 150
1000 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 830
Los Angeles 90017
10 ITU Ventures 100
1900 Avenue of the Stars, Suite 1900
Los Angeles 90067
11 Anthem Venture Partners (12) 100
225 Arizona Ave., Suite 200
Santa Monica 90401
12 Evercore Ventures (13) 100
11111 Santa Monica Blvd., Suite 1500
Los Angeles 90025
13 GKM Ventures (14) 95
11150 Santa Monica Blvd., Suite 825
Los Angeles 90025
14 Stone Canyon Venture Partners LP (15) 85
301 N. Canon Drive, Suite 302
Beverly Hills 90210
15 Palisades Ventures (18) (4) 75
11766 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 890
Los Angeles 90025
Rank Project Profile Preferred Industries
(partial list)
* minimum size (1)
* preferred size (1)
* number invested in (2)
1 $2 software, semiconductors, services
$3-5
56
2 2 financial services and technology,
10 retail and restaurants, retail
62 technology, outsourced business
services
3 1 technology
1-5
62
4 0.1 technology
2-3
30+
5 1-2 infrastructure software,
2-5 networking telecom infrastructure,
43 wireless solutions
6 2 IT infrastructure, education
6 healthcare services, industrial and
36 business services, environmental
buyouts
7 1 health care services, medical
3-5 devices, biomedical, health care IT
44
8 1 wireless communications, storage,
5-7 network infrastructure, enterprise
19 software, telecommunications
9 2 business and financial services,
2-7 consumer products and services,
WND niche manufacturing
10 0.3 communications, semiconductors,
5 software
30
11 0.5 software, semiconductors,
2-5 technology enabled software
20
12 1 wireless, storage, software,
2.5 internet services
15
13 1.5 IT, software, wireless,
3-4 semiconductors
6
14 1 media, consumer, energy,
2-4 medical services, opportunistic
7
15 N/A telecommunications, wireless,
3-5 communications, broadband,
11 enterprise software
Rank Companies Preferred
Recent Financing
Funded Stage(s)
1 Intrepid Learning Solutions, ePartners, seed, early,
Gluecode Software, Practice growth
Technologies, Azaire Networks
2 Emida Technologies, OnTech, all
Lavar, NetSize, IfCo.
3 WND early
4 Synta Pharmaceuticals, XenoPort, later, growth
Corus Pharma, IntraLuminal
Therapeutics, Network Physics
5 Datallegro Inc., Newport Imaging Corp., early
Gamma Enterprises Technologies,
Wiquest Communications
6 Advanced Products Corp., Cogent mid to late
Communications Group, 02
Science, National Lab Partners
7 Aethon Inc., Asteres Inc. early
8 MarketWire, FutureTrade early, mid,
late
9 WND later, growth
10 Holochip, XAware seed
11 Axiom Microdevices, Audyssey early stage
Labs, Ario Data Networks, Pulse
Technology, Neven Vision, ACT
12 Strongmail Systems, all
Sierra Design Automation
13 TransDimension series B or
later
14 LTI Inc., Ceyx, Bioren series A-B,
growth
15 Peregrine Semiconductor, Visage growth
Mobile, Digital Evolution
Rank Source of Top Local Executive(s)
Funds
* name
* title
* phone
1 institutions, Tom Unterman
investors managing partner
(310) 998-8000
2 institutional investors S. Lebow/Y. Sisteron
managing ptnrs., founders
(310) 785-5100
3 institutional investors, Bill Elkus
universities, managing director, founder
pensions (310) 460-7900
4 WND M. Gamsin/T. Fukumoto
president/managing dir.
(310) 772-6000
5 institutional investors, James Gauer
pension plans general partner
(310) 260-6050
6 institutional Frank R. Kline
investors, individuals managing partner
(310) 442-4700
7 private limited E. Kurtin/L. Crouch
partners managing directors
(818) 990-4141
8 private investors David Nazarian
founding member
(310) 203-3800
9 WND E. Wedbush/G. Bland
president/managing dir.
(213) 688-8080
10 pension, corporate Jonah Schnel
managing partner
(310) 777-5900
11 institutional William Woodward
investors ceo, managing director
(310) 899-6225
12 institutional investors A. Beutner/S. Pant
general partners
(310) 689-0800
13 institutional investors, J. Bloch/J. Morris
individuals managing partners
(310) 268-2600
14 institutions, Michael Siebert
high net-worth managing director
individuals (310) 432-5180
15 institutional investors, Paul D'Addario
high net-worth senior managing director
individuals (310) 996-7696
N/A--Not Applicable
WND--Would Not Disclose
(1) In millions.
(2) Number of companies invested in since inception.
(3) Listed as E*Capital Corp. last year.
(4) Steamboat Ventures, the venture capital arm of the Walt Disney Co.,
also manages a $75 million portfolio, but would not disclose the number
of projects in which it has invested.
Note: Information on this list was provided by representatives of the
firms themselves. In order to qualify, venture capital firms must be
headquartered in Los Angeles County. Firms are ranked by the amount of
capital under management companywide and the number of projects
completed since inception, respectively. Forrest Binkley & Brown, No.
8 last year, has shifted to private equity funding.
To the best of our knowledge, this information is accurate as of press
time. While every effort is made to ensure the accuracy and
thoroughness of the list, omissions and typographical errors sometimes
occur. Please send corrections or additions on company letterhead to
the Research Department, Los Angeles Business Journal, 5700 Wilshire
Blvd., Suite 170, Los Angeles 90036. [c]2004 Los Angeles Business
Journal. This list may not be reprinted in whole or in part without
prior written permission from the edit or. Reprints are available from
Wright's Reprints, (877) 652-5295.
Researched by David Nusbaum
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