Flybridge Capital Partners is a Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

-based private equity firm focused on early-stage venture capital

Venture capital

Venture capital is financial capital provided to early-stage, high-potential, high risk, growth startup companies. The venture capital fund makes money by owning equity in the companies it invests in, which usually have a novel technology or business model in high technology industries, such as...

 investments. With $560 million under management across three funds, the firm invests in consumer, healthcare, energy and information technology markets and is led by a team with domain expertise and experience in venture capital.

Flybridge’s current general partners are David Aronoff, Jeff Bussgang, Michael Greeley, Chip Hazard and Jon Karlen.

History

The firm was founded in 2001 as IDG Ventures Atlantic with a $100 million first fund, which was funded by IT media firm International Data Group (IDG). Subsequent to its first fund, the firm raised a $180 million second fund in 2005 where it brought in additional investors outside of IDG.
In 2008, the firm closed a third $280 million fund and renamed itself Flybridge Capital Partners to better reflect its position as a firm with a broad investor base and diverse sector focus.

Investment funds and investments

Flybridge has $560 million under management. The firm is typically the first institutional investor in the companies it backs, and focuses on capital efficient seed and early-stage companies seeking capital to fuel growth and expand operations.

Investment Funds

Since inception, the firm has raised three venture capital funds

Private equity fund

A private equity fund is a collective investment scheme used for making investments in various equity securities according to one of the investment strategies associated with private equity....

 with combined investor commitments of $560 million.

• 2001 — IDG Ventures Atlantic I LP, $100 million
• 2005 — IDG Ventures Atlantic II LP, $180 million
• 2008 — Flybridge Capital Partners III LP, $280 million

Investments

Flybridge Capital Partners has invested in 51 companies to date including: 10gen

10gen

10gen is a software company that develops and provides commercial support for the open source database MongoDB.-Overview:10gen was founded in 2007 by former DoubleClick Founder and CTO Dwight Merriman and former DoubleClick engineer and ShopWiki Founder and CTO Eliot Horowitz...

, Brontes Technologies (acquired by 3M), BzzAgent, Calxeda. Cartera Commerce, CHiL Semiconductor, Digital Lumens, Open English, MicroCHIPS, Predictive Biosciences, Reveal Imaging (acquired by SAIC), SimpleTuition, Transpera, ZestCash, and ZING (acquired by Dell).

Flybridge focuses on certain sectors where the firm has invested previously or has other experience. Among these sectors are:

• Consumer Infrastructure – E-commerce, video, Web 2.0
  Web 2.0
  The term Web 2.0 is associated with web applications that facilitate participatory information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design, and collaboration on the World Wide Web...
  
  
• Tech-enabled Business Services – Technology-enabled marketing, financial services
  Financial services
  Financial services refer to services provided by the finance industry. The finance industry encompasses a broad range of organizations that deal with the management of money. Among these organizations are credit unions, banks, credit card companies, insurance companies, consumer finance companies,...
  
  /payments
• Technology for Healthcare – Tools for life sciences, medical devices, health IT
• Enterprise IT – Data virtualization, open source
  Open source
  The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
  
  , software as a service
  Software as a Service
  Software as a service , sometimes referred to as "on-demand software," is a software delivery model in which software and its associated data are hosted centrally and are typically accessed by users using a thin client, normally using a web browser over the Internet.SaaS has become a common...
  
  
• Physical Security – Information security compliance, physical and homeland security
  Homeland security
  Homeland security is an umbrella term for security efforts to protect states against terrorist activity. Specifically, is a concerted national effort to prevent terrorist attacks within the U.S., reduce America’s vulnerability to terrorism, and minimize the damage and recover from attacks that do...
  
  
• Mobile – Mobile applications, mobile infrastructure
• Platform Semiconductors and Components – Analog, mixed signal, MEMS
  Microelectromechanical systems
  Microelectromechanical systems is the technology of very small mechanical devices driven by electricity; it merges at the nano-scale into nanoelectromechanical systems and nanotechnology...
  
  , multimedia, RF
  Radio frequency
  Radio frequency is a rate of oscillation in the range of about 3 kHz to 300 GHz, which corresponds to the frequency of radio waves, and the alternating currents which carry radio signals...
  
  , power
• Energy – Demand-side technologies, energy storage, advanced materials

Stay in MA Program

In January 2009, Flybridge Capital Partners launched Stay in MA, a student scholarship program for Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

-based college students to foster entrepreneurship and innovation between students and the local business community. Stay in MA provides financial assistance to students interested in joining or attending the events of technology and business organizations in the region.

External links

• Flybridge Capital Partners (company website)
• Stay in MA (program website)