Venrock (portmanteau of Venture and Rockefeller) is an American venture capital firm formed in 1969 to build upon the successful investing activities of the Rockefeller family[1] that began in the late 1930s. It has offices in Palo Alto, California, and New York City.
 Venrock logo | |
Company type | Limited liability company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Venture capital |
| Founded | 1969 |
| Founder | Laurance Rockefeller |
| Headquarters | Palo Alto, California, United States |
| Products | Investments |
| Website | venrock |
History
editBeginning in 1934, Laurance S. Rockefeller (1910–2004) the fourth of the six children of John D. Rockefeller Jr. began investing in early-stage businesses.[2] The first was a store that sold Finnish furniture. The second, borne of his friendship with the pilot Eddie Rickenbacker, led to the creation of Eastern Airlines.[2]
He continued investing portions of his family’s fortune and ultimately grew roughly $8.7 million into more than $28 million by the late 1950s. After identifying an early-stage opportunity, he would occasionally bring his brothers and sister in as partners. Using his wealth to seed start-up ventures was a relatively unknown practice at the time.[2]
In 1969, Rockefeller formalized these activities by establishing Venrock Associates as a limited partnership funded by family members[3] and some of the institutions the family supported including the Museum of Modern Art, Rockefeller University and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.[2] By 1996, Venrock had financed 221 early-stage companies across aviation, electronics, computers, and biotechnology.[2] Some of its earliest investmens include Intel, Apple, 3Com and Gilead Sciences.[3]
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.[4][5]
Investments
editVenrock invested more than $2.5 billion in more than 440 companies, resulting in 125 initial public offerings.[citation needed] Venrock focuses its investments on early-stage and start-up companies in information technology, healthcare and emerging technologies. These include: Intel, Apple,[1] AppNexus, Astranis, StrataCom, Check Point Software, Dapper Labs, DoubleClick, 3Com Corporation, Mosaic, PGP, Itek, Digex, Interos,[6] 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.[7] Others include BioTime.[8][9]
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,[10] senolytic startup UNITY Biotechnology,[11] Genetics Institute, Idec Pharmaceuticals Corporation, Illumina, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Sirna Therapeutics, and Sugen.[citation needed]
See also
editReferences
edit- 1 2 Reinhold, Robert (6 February 1984). "STARTING UP IN SILICON VALLEY: LONG HOURS, FORSAKEN LIVES". The New York Times. Retrieved 16 December 2024.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Kaufman, Michael T. (2004-07-12). "Laurance S. Rockefeller, Passionate Conservationist And Investor, Is Dead at 94". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2026-03-06.
- 1 2 Dolan, Kerry A. "How Venrock Is Reinventing Itself". Forbes. Retrieved 2018-08-13.
- ↑ Loizos, Connie (January 26, 2017). "Venrock has raised $450 million for its eighth fund — just like its seventh fund". TechCrunch. Retrieved June 20, 2017.
- ↑ Dolan, Kerry A. "How Venrock Is Reinventing Itself". Forbes. Retrieved 2017-12-06.
- ↑ Interos (2020-03-12). "Interos Raises $17.5M from Venrock and Kleiner Perkins to Grow Third-Party Risk Management Platform" (Press release). GlobeNewswire News Room. Retrieved 2021-08-16.
- ↑ Feder, Barnaby J. (March 15, 2004). "TECHNOLOGY; Bashful vs. Brash in the New Field of Nanotech". The New York Times. Retrieved May 2, 2017.
- ↑ "SEC Schedule 13G, filed Feb. 17, 1999". Archived from the original on 2016-03-06. Retrieved 2013-08-15.
- ↑ "Bloomberg Link speaker profile". Archived from the original on 2013-08-03.
- ↑ "SEC Schedule 13G, filed Feb. 17, 1999". Archived from the original on 2016-03-06. Retrieved 2013-08-15.
- ↑ Timmerman, Luke (27 October 2016). "Arch, Fidelity, Bezos Bet $116M On Startup To Fight Diseases Of Aging". Forbes. Retrieved 2 January 2017.
Further reading
edit- Harr, John Ensor, and Peter J. Johnson. The Rockefeller Century: Three Generations of America's Greatest Family. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1988.
- Winks, Robin W. Laurance S. Rockefeller: Catalyst for Conservation. New York: Island Press, 1997.