Pond Ventures made successful exits from three portfolio companies during the fourth quarter of 2010. The acquisitions of Broadway Networks Ltd, 4Home and Gigle Networks together returned a substantial portion of drawn capital to Pond’s investors.


“We are very pleased with these exits and extremely happy for our investment partners and the founders, management teams and employees at each portfolio company,” says Richard Irving, co-founder and General Partner of Pond. “These acquisitions validate our unique investing model, which has sustained exit ratios well above the industry average. We believe our model will continue to drive value and job creation while delivering above-average returns, even in a no/slow-growth economic climate that may last through this decade.” 


With approximately USD200 million under management, Pond runs the largest early-stage technology fund based in the UK and Silicon Valley. The firm focuses on globally commercialising best-in-class indigenous technologies mined from Europe and Israel, and uses a unique investing model that is designed to optimise capital efficiency and reduce risk while delivering industry-leading returns in a shorter period of time. Since launching its first fund in 1998, Pond has achieved five exits on 22 investments, its average portfolio exit was accomplished in under five years, and its portfolio companies have created hundreds of jobs in a number of high-growth industries.


“These acquisitions are emblematic of how we manage our portfolio investments,” says Charles Irving, co-founder and General Partner of Pond. “While venture capital firms traditionally generate the majority of their returns from a single portfolio company and write off the rest, our model is based on a majority of good exit returns, an industry-low number of write-offs for an early-stage fund, and upside opportunities from exits that deliver substantially higher-multiple returns. This model has proven to reduce risk and shorten investment cycles while generating best-in-class returns even in a challenging economic climate.”
