Venrock

History

Venture capitalist Laurance S. Rockefeller (1910–2004) was the fourth of the six children of John D. Rockefeller Jr. In January 1946 he formed Rockefeller Brothers, Inc., one of the first postwar venture-capital operations, starting with a capitalization of $1.5 million. There were eight partners in all, the five brothers and their sister, Abby, and two non-family members, Harper Woodward and MIT scientist Ted Walkowicz. In 1969, the firm became known as Venrock. Laurance S. Rockefeller became an investor in enterprises based on science and technology. His investment interests included the fields of aviation, aerospace, electronics, high temperature physics, composite materials, optics, lasers, data processing, thermionics, and nuclear power.

Venrock closed its seventh fund in July 2014 with 8 partners and its eighth fund in January 2017 with 15 partners, each fund totalling $450 million.

Investments

Venrock invested more than $2.5 billion in more than 440 companies, resulting in 125 initial public offerings. Venrock focuses its investments on early-stage and start-up companies in information technology, healthcare and emerging technologies. These include: Intel, Apple, AppNexus, Astranis, StrataCom, Check Point Software, Dapper Labs, DoubleClick, 3Com Corporation, Mosaic, PGP, Itek, Digex, Interos, Shape Security, Phoenix, Second Rotation (gazelle), RedSeal, CTERA Networks, and Juno Therapeutics. It also has a significant venture in the nascent nanotechnology field, with early funding of Nanosys and the nanotech division of Du Pont. Others include BioTime.

In the healthcare sector with partners such as Bryan Roberts, Venrock has invested in athenahealth, Grand Rounds, HealthSouth Corporation, MedPartners, Inc., Castlight Health, Caliper Technologies Corporation, Centocor, Geron, senolytic startup UNITY Biotechnology, Genetics Institute, Idec Pharmaceuticals Corporation, Illumina, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Sirna Therapeutics, and Sugen.

References

References

1. Reinhold, Robert. (6 February 1984). "STARTING UP IN SILICON VALLEY: LONG HOURS, FORSAKEN LIVES". [[The New York Times]].
2. Dolan, Kerry A.. "How Venrock Is Reinventing Itself". Forbes.
3. Loizos, Connie. (January 26, 2017). "Venrock has raised $450 million for its eighth fund — just like its seventh fund". [[TechCrunch]].
4. Dolan, Kerry A.. "How Venrock Is Reinventing Itself". Forbes.
5. Interos. (2020-03-12). "Interos Raises $17.5M from Venrock and Kleiner Perkins to Grow Third-Party Risk Management Platform". GlobeNewswire News Room.
6. Feder, Barnaby J.. (March 15, 2004). "TECHNOLOGY; Bashful vs. Brash in the New Field of Nanotech". [[The New York Times]].
7. "SEC Schedule 13G, filed Feb. 17, 1999".
8. "Bloomberg Link speaker profile".
9. "SEC Schedule 13G, filed Feb. 17, 1999".
10. (27 October 2016). "Arch, Fidelity, Bezos Bet $116M On Startup To Fight Diseases Of Aging". [[Forbes]].