Correlation Ventures has closed its initial USD165 million venture capital fund, 10 per cent above the USD150 million target. The firm leverages its analytics to offer entrepreneurs and lead investors co-investment decisions within two weeks. Limited partners include leading endowments, foundations, pensions, family offices, and high-net-worth individuals, including over 30 venture capital peers who invested personally.
Correlation Ventures, with offices in San Diego and Palo Alto, California, is creating a portfolio of over 50 US private companies and has a broad mandate to invest in all stages and industry sectors, including information technology, life sciences, and clean-tech. Launched in late 2010, the firm currently manages a portfolio of 13 companies. The firm is actively making new investments and expects to continue to make approximately one new investment per month.
"As venture capitalists over the past 14 years, and entrepreneurs prior to that, we observed how counter-productive the fundraising process often was for both entrepreneurs and their lead investors," says David Coats (pictured), a Managing Director and founder of Correlation Ventures. "After one or two lead VC investors were already actively involved, our companies often wanted a professional, reliable venture investor who would make a rapid investment decision, with minimal distraction, and not, in fact, introduce a new decision-maker into the mix. We founded Correlation to meet this unmet need."
Trevor Kienzle, co-founder and Managing Director, and also a 14 year venture capital veteran, says: "Several of my best investments as a VC have been in companies that at one point had a need to fill out a round, and turned out to be very successful enterprises. We’re excited about the traction we’re already seeing in our initial portfolio at Correlation, and look forward to offering this alternative to many more companies and syndicates in the coming years."
