Shasta Ventures has announced the closing of Shasta Ventures II, a USD250m venture capital fund focusing investments in early-stage technology companies.
Shasta Ventures has announced the closing of Shasta Ventures II, a USD250m venture capital fund focusing investments in early-stage technology companies. Limited partners in the fund are primarily returning institutional investors from Shasta’s first fund, encompassing endowments, foundations, pension funds and family offices.
Shasta Ventures, which began investing its first fund of USD210m in early 2005, has made 22 investments to date in early-stage companies spanning consumer and business internet services, mobile and wireless, and software and infrastructure, and will continue this investment strategy with the new fund.
Companies in the Shasta portfolio include Arch Rock (sensor networking), Eye-Fi (wireless photography), SayNow (voice and text services), Mint (online personal finance services), Lithium (hosted community services) and Turn (automated advertising platform). To date, two Shasta portfolio companies have been acquired, Logoworks by HP and iConclude by Opsware.
‘The interest from our investors was very strong and we were able to close the fund quickly following an efficient process,’ says Shasta Ventures managing director Tod Francis. ‘This new fund enables us to continue our strategy of working with early-stage entrepreneurs who are leveraging technology to improve customer experiences.’
The investment team at Shasta Ventures, including Robert Coneybeer, Francis, Ravi Mohan and Jason Pressman as well as chief financial officer Austin Grose, combines core technology expertise with experience in consumer marketing.
