Greylock
Encyclopedia
Greylock Partners is one of the oldest venture capital
firms, founded in 1965, with committed capital of over $2 billion under management. The firm focuses on early stage companies in the consumer, enterprise software and infrastructure as well as semiconductor sectors.
Today, Greylock operates out of offices in the Bay Area, Cambridge
, Israel
and India
.
Greylock was founded in 1965 by Bill Elfers and Dan Gregory, joined shortly thereafter by Charlie Waite. Bill and Charlie had both worked at American Research and Development Corporation
—one of the country’s first venture capital firms—while Dan was an investment manager at John P. Chase. The original capital ($9 million in total) was committed by a group of six prominent families, all of whom are still investors in Greylock. Over the ensuing 43 years, Greylock has raised a series of partnerships, with current committed capital in excess of $2 billion, and helped build over 300 growth companies.
, LinkedIn
Co-Founder, as Partner. In 2006, Greylock launched Greylock Israel, a separate fund dedicated to Israel. Committed capital across the Greylock partnerships exceeds $2 billion. Greylock's limited partners include the nation’s most prestigious university endowments, major American industrial families and not for profit foundations. Greylock has had all of its limited partners participate in all partnerships subsequent to their original investment.
, CipherTrust
, Data Domain
, Digg
, Facebook
, Farecast, Linkedin
, SunEdison
, Typesafe, Xircom
, Zipcar
, Payoneer
and AppDynamics
.
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...
firms, founded in 1965, with committed capital of over $2 billion under management. The firm focuses on early stage companies in the consumer, enterprise software and infrastructure as well as semiconductor sectors.
Today, Greylock operates out of offices in the Bay Area, Cambridge
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
, Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
and India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
.
Greylock was founded in 1965 by Bill Elfers and Dan Gregory, joined shortly thereafter by Charlie Waite. Bill and Charlie had both worked at American Research and Development Corporation
American Research and Development Corporation
American Research and Development Corporation was a venture capital and private equity firm founded in 1946 by Georges Doriot, the "father of venture capitalism" , with Ralph Flanders and Karl Compton .ARDC is credited with the first major venture capital success story when its 1957 investment of...
—one of the country’s first venture capital firms—while Dan was an investment manager at John P. Chase. The original capital ($9 million in total) was committed by a group of six prominent families, all of whom are still investors in Greylock. Over the ensuing 43 years, Greylock has raised a series of partnerships, with current committed capital in excess of $2 billion, and helped build over 300 growth companies.
Funding
Greylock Partners is organized in a series of thirteen limited partnerships begun in 1965, 1973, 1979, 1983, 1985, 1987, 1990, 1994, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2005 and 2009. On 2nd November, 2009 Greylock announced $575 Million Fund and hired Reid HoffmanReid Hoffman
Reid G. Hoffman is an American entrepreneur and venture capitalist. Hoffman is best known as the co-founder of LinkedIn, a social network used primarily for business connections and job searching.-Early education and career:...
LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a business-related social networking site. Founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003, it is mainly used for professional networking. , LinkedIn reports more than 120 million registered users in more than 200 countries and territories. The site is available in English, French,...
Co-Founder, as Partner. In 2006, Greylock launched Greylock Israel, a separate fund dedicated to Israel. Committed capital across the Greylock partnerships exceeds $2 billion. Greylock's limited partners include the nation’s most prestigious university endowments, major American industrial families and not for profit foundations. Greylock has had all of its limited partners participate in all partnerships subsequent to their original investment.
Significant Investments
Greylock's investments include Ascend CommunicationsAscend Communications
Ascend Communications was an Alameda, California-based manufacturer of communications equipment that was later purchased by Lucent Technologies in 1999....
, CipherTrust
Ciphertrust
CipherTrust was an anti-spam email software company based in Alpharetta, GA , although they had offices around the world. Since August 2006 it is part of Secure Computing Corp, which was acquired by McAfee in 2008. The company was co-founded by Jay Chaudhry and Lawrence Hughes...
, Data Domain
Data domain
In data management and database analysis, a data domain refers to all the unique values which a data element may contain. The rule for determining the domain boundary may be as simple as a data type with an enumerated list of values....
, Digg
Digg
Digg is a social news website. Prior to Digg v4, its cornerstone function consisted of letting people vote stories up or down, called digging and burying, respectively. Digg's popularity prompted the creation of copycat social networking sites with story submission and voting systems...
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
, Farecast, Linkedin
LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a business-related social networking site. Founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003, it is mainly used for professional networking. , LinkedIn reports more than 120 million registered users in more than 200 countries and territories. The site is available in English, French,...
, SunEdison
SunEdison
Sun Edison LLC owns and operates power plants in North America and provides solar-generated energy to commercial, government, and utility customers. The company provides solar energy services, which include renewable power, monitoring, marketing, renewable portfolio standards, and solar tariff...
, Typesafe, Xircom
Xircom
Xircom, Inc. was based in Thousand Oaks, California, with manufacturing facilities located in Penang & Malaysia and international offices throughout Europe and Asia Pacific. They were one of the first companies to develop network computing products for notebook computers. Products included...
, Zipcar
Zipcar
Zipcar is an American membership-based car sharing company providing automobile reservations to its members, billable by the hour or day. Zipcar was founded in 2000 by Cambridge, Massachusetts residents Antje Danielson and Robin Chase, and is now led by Scott Griffith, Chairman and Chief Executive...
, Payoneer
Payoneer
Payoneer is an Internet-based financial services business that allows users to transfer money and receive payments through re-loadable prepaid MasterCard debit cards...
and AppDynamics
AppDynamics
AppDynamics, Inc. is an application performance management company headquartered in San Francisco, CA. The company focuses on managing the performance and availability of applications across cloud computing environments as well as inside the data center...
.
Investment Areas of Focus
- Consumer and Services: Financial, Healthcare, Internet, Mobile, Retail, Systems Integration.
- Enterprise Infrastructure: Compute/Data Center, Management, Networking, Security, Storage.
- Enterprise Software: Applications, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
- Semiconductor: EDA, Networking, Wireless
Other involvements
- William W. Helman, a partner in the firm, is a member of the board of the Harvard Management CompanyHarvard Management CompanyHarvard Management Company or HMC is an American investment management corporation wholly owned subsidiary of Harvard University, charged with managing the university's endowment, pension assets, working capital, and non-cash gifts...
. - Final line of Aneel Bhusri ForbesForbesForbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
profile: "Personal distraction: obsessed with the Boston Red SoxBoston Red SoxThe Boston Red Sox are a professional baseball team based in Boston, Massachusetts, and a member of Major League Baseball’s American League Eastern Division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight charter franchises, the Red Sox's home ballpark has been Fenway Park since . The "Red Sox"...
." Bhursi was vice chairman at PeopleSoftPeopleSoftPeopleSoft, Inc. was a company that provided Human Resource Management Systems , Financial Management Solutions , Supply Chain and customer relationship management software, as well as software solutions for manufacturing, enterprise performance management, and student administration to large...
before joining Greylock. - Henry F. McCance, Greylock Chairman Emeritus, purchased of 1.18% share in New England Sports VenturesNew England Sports VenturesFenway Sports Group is an American sports investment company. It is the parent company of Major League Baseball's Boston Red Sox and Premier League football club Liverpool F.C.....
, owner of the Red Sox, for $14 million.
External links
- Greylock Partners Home Page
- Wal-Mart to buy Greylock funded video streaming service Vudu
- AppDynamics emerges from stealth mode, launches proactive performance monitoring for Web apps
- List of Investments at Greylock Partners by Crunch Base (Crunch Base)
- Greylock's David Sze interviewed by The Wall Street Journal
- Despite Slump, Venture Firm Sets Up $575 Million Fund by New York Times
- Greylock Announces $575 Million Fund and Hires Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn Co-Founder, as Partner Greylock Partners News
- Greylock Partners is one of the investors of ZeroG Wireless