Little Perkins Caufield & Byers

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Little Perkins Caufield & Byers

logo
legal form Holding company
founding 1972
Seat Menlo Park , California , United States of America
management Eugene Kleiner , Tom Perkins , Brook Byers , Bill Joy , John Doerr
Branch Venture capital
Website www.kpcb.com

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) is a Silicon Valley based venture capital firm . The Wall Street Journal and other media outlets have named KPCB one of the "largest and best-established" venture capitalists . Dealbook describes KPCB as one of Silicon Valley's top venture capitalists.

The company has specialized in the investment of companies in the development phase and the early stage. Since its founding in 1972, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers has more than 500 companies including AOL , Amazon.com , Citrix , Compaq , Electronic Arts , Genentech , Genomic Health , Google , Intuit , Juniper Networks , Nest Labs , Netscape , Sun , Symantec , Verisign , WebMD, and Zynga supported. KPCB sets its global investment goals in three broad areas - Digital , Greentech and Life Sciences .

The enterprise

KPCB was founded in 1972. Today it is the world leader in investments in information technology , energy, environmental technology , life sciences and pharmacology . KPCB is very selective about the companies it invests in. These are to become "category-defining companies" and the market leaders in their branch. The company has traditionally specialized in early stage investments, but also makes later state investments. KPCB has a high reputation within the industry and is considered to be the company with the highest track record in setting up international companies. Because of this, an investment by KPCB is seen as a sign of the company's high potential.

The company was named after the last names of its four founders Eugene Kleiner , Tom Perkins , Frank J. Caufield and Brook Byers . Other notable members of the firm include partners John Doerr and Raymond J. Lane , as well as high profile individuals such as Sun Microsystems co-founder Bill Joy (who joined in January 2005), former US Secretary of State Colin Powell (who joined in July 2005 ), Vinod Khosla and the former US Vice President Al Gore , who joined as a partner in November 2007 as part of a partnership between his company Generation Investment and KPCB to promote environmental technology .

In addition to its headquarters in California , the company also has offices in Shanghai and Beijing .

KPCB was known as one of the more advanced venture capital firms when it came to hiring women; with 12 female out of 49 partners in total. Nevertheless, a partner - Ellen Pao - sued the company in May 2012 for gender discrimination. KPCB vigorously denied these allegations and the case continues to this day.

history

The growth of venture capital firms was fueled by the demand for independent investment firms on Sand Hill Road . Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers recognized this very early on. At that point, most of the venture capital company founders came from the financial sector. The founders of KPCB differed from this picture because of their various technical backgrounds. Kleiner was the founder of Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation and Perkins was one of the directors of Hewlett-Packard's early computer hardware divisions. By settling in Menlo Park , California , they had access to the burgeoning technology industry in the area. In the early 1970s, many semiconductor companies were formed in the Santa Clara Valley , as were early computer companies that used those devices and services. Venture capital firms suffered a decline in 1974 when the stock market collapsed and investors were skeptical of investing in this new breed of mutual fund. Nevertheless, Kleiner Perkins remained active during this period. Kleiner invested in Tandem Computers , an early manufacturer of computer systems, founded in 1975 by Jimmy Treybig .

Investments

The company has invested in over 300 IT and biotech companies over the past 35 years. Including Amazon.com , America Online , Brio Technology , Compaq , GenScript , Electronic Arts , Flextronics , Genentech , Google , Intuit , Lotus Development , LSI Logic , Macromedia , Netscape , Quantum , Segway , Sun Microsystems and Tandem . Current notable private investments are EEstor , Vertica , Chegg , Lending Club , shopkick, Ocarina Networks , Plum District , Cooliris , Clean Power Finance and OptiMedica .

KPCB paid over $ 4 million for a 25% stake in Netscape in 1994 and benefited from Netscape's initial public offering (IPO) and subsequently made $ 4 billion from America Online's acquisition of Netscape . An $ 8 million investment in Cerent raised approximately $ 2 billion through its sale to Cisco Systems for $ 6.9 billion in August 1999.

In 1999, Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia Capital bought 20% of Google for $ 25 million - in November 2008, Google's market capitalization was around $ 108 billion. As an initial investor in Amazon.com, KPCB generated a return of over 55,000% in December 1999 with the mail-order company's share high, even if the value of the investment was reduced by the subsequent price decline.

In March 2008, KPCB announced the iFund , a $ 100 million venture capital investment initiative designed to support innovators in application development, services and components for Apple's iPhone and iPod touch platforms, including shopkick, Path, Booyah and Shazam . KPCB's other mobile initiatives include investments in InMobi , a Bangalore-based mobile advertising platform. KPCB doubled its iFund investment in April 2009 to $ 200 million.

In April 2008 it was reported that KPCB is raising a US $ 400 million fund, which is in the growth phase, for the cleantech industry. In October 2010, KPCB sFund launched a new $ 250 million fund to support social startups with Facebook, Zynga and Amazon.com as co-investors.

Think America

In 2008, KPCB announced its plan to begin putting 50,000 electric cars on American roads by the end of next year. The company would be called Think North America and would be based in Menlo Park , California .

The plan was to bring Kleiner together with RockPort Capital Management , a venture capital company focused on cleantech, and Think Global - a Norwegian automaker.

KPCB XIII Foundation and Green Growth Fund

In May 2008, KPCB announced their latest investment: KPCB XIII. KPCB XIII plans to distribute over $ 700 million over a rough three year period to entrepreneurs and innovations in the fields of environmental engineering, information technology and life sciences. The company also announced it was opening a $ 500 million Green Growth Fund.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Scott Austin: One Of These Venture Firms Is Not Like The Other . In: The Wall Street Journal , January 22, 2010. Retrieved September 25, 2013. 
  2. ^ Gore's Dual Role in Spotlight: Advocate and Investor . In: The New York Times (Dealbook) , November 3, 2009. Retrieved September 25, 2013. 
  3. ↑ Capital Markets: Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers . In: Bloomberg Businessweek . Retrieved July 27, 2011.
  4. ↑ KPCB Portfolio Companies ( Memento of the original from March 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.kpcb.com
  5. ↑ a b Greentech Initiative . Little Perkins Caufield & Byers. Archived from the original on April 20, 2008. Retrieved November 13, 2007.
  6. ↑ a b KPCB Information Technology ( Memento of the original from June 3, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.kpcb.com
  7. ↑ Matt Richtel: Little Perkins Goes Late on Energy . In: The New York Times , May 1, 2008. Retrieved September 25, 2013. 
  8. ↑ Silver Spring Networks obtains $ 75 million; John Doerr and Al Gore Join Advisory Board ( Memento of the original from June 5, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.greenvc.org
  9. ↑ $ 200 million "ecomagination Challenge: Powering the Grid" Competition Announced by GE, Emerald Technology Ventures, Foundation Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and RockPort Capital ( Memento of the original August 18, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet tested. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.greenvc.org
  10. ^ Zachary Coile: Gore joins Valley's Little Perkins to push green business . In: San Francisco Chronicle , Nov. 13, 2007. 
  11. ↑ Generation Investment Management and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Create International Alliance to Accelerate Global Climate Solutions . Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Generation Investment Management . November 12, 2007. Archived from the original on November 14, 2007. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved November 13, 2007. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.kpcb.com
  12. ↑ KPCB Offices ( Memento of the original from July 22, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.kpcb.com
  13. ^ The Depressing Gender Gap at the Nation's Top 71 Venture Capital Firms . In: Betabeat , May 31, 2012. Retrieved June 15, 2012. 
  14. ^ Sarah McBride: Small partner sues firm for discrimination . In: Reuters , May 22, 2012. Retrieved June 15, 2012. 
  15. ↑ Kleiner Perkins 'Vigorously Denies' Ellen Pao's Gender Discrimination Claims . In: Betabeat , May 31, 2012. Retrieved June 15, 2012. 
  16. ↑ Tandem Computers FundingUniverse.com
  17. ↑ "Executive Joins Kleiner Perkins" , The New York Times , 14 March 1984th
  18. ↑ KPCB doubles iFund investment to $ 200MM ( memento of the original from March 10, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.kpcb.com
  19. ↑ Alexander Haislip, Dan Primack: Little Perkins raising green growth fund . In: Private Equity Week , April 24, 2008. Archived from the original on May 1, 2008 Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved April 27, 2008. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.pewnews.com 
  20. ↑ The Kleiner Perkins Fund: A $ 250 mn bet that social is just getting started . Retrieved October 22, 2010.
  21. ↑ Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Forms $ 700 million KPCB XIII Fund . May 1, 2008. Archived from the original on July 23, 2010. Retrieved September 25, 2013.