Tenaya Capital
Encyclopedia
Tenaya Capital is a venture capital
firm with offices in Menlo Park, California
, and Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1995 as Lehman Brothers
Venture Partners, Tenaya spun out to become an independent firm in 2009 following Lehman's bankruptcy. To date, Tenaya has raised five funds representing over $1 billion of committed capital. The firm currently has approximately $750 million under management
.
Current investments include Kayak.com
, Mark Logic
, LifeSize
, Zappos.com
, TeleNav
, ShoreTel
, Qunar.com, PowerReviews, Tumri, and Zuora. Past investments include comScore
(NASDAQ: SCOR), Isilon Systems
(NASDAQ: ISLN), Navini (acquired by Cisco Systems
), SideStep
(acquired by Kayak.com
), and Valere (acquired by Eltek
).
filed for bankruptcy protection. As part of the liquidation process, Lazard
was appointed to sell certain interests in Lehman Brothers Venture Partners and its other private investment units.
In January 2009, HarbourVest Partners
, a Boston private equity fund of funds
, financed the spinout of Tenaya, acquiring Lehman's existing investment and unfunded commitments to Tenaya venture funds.
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...
firm with offices in Menlo Park, California
Menlo Park, California
Menlo Park, California is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, in the United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, and Stanford to the south; Atherton, North Fair Oaks, and Redwood City...
, and Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1995 as Lehman Brothers
Lehman Brothers
Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. was a global financial services firm. Before declaring bankruptcy in 2008, Lehman was the fourth largest investment bank in the USA , doing business in investment banking, equity and fixed-income sales and trading Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (former NYSE ticker...
Venture Partners, Tenaya spun out to become an independent firm in 2009 following Lehman's bankruptcy. To date, Tenaya has raised five funds representing over $1 billion of committed capital. The firm currently has approximately $750 million under management
Assets under management
Assets under management is a financial term used denote the market value of funds being managed by a financial instutition on behalf of its clients, investors, depositors, etc. This metric is a sign of size and success against competition...
.
Investments
Tenaya Capital invests in a wide range of technology segments, including Internet and consumer, communications, semiconductors and electronics, software and systems, and cleantech. Tenaya generally invests in a startup's second or third institutional round, at a point when the company has a product or service that has started to generate market traction. However, the firm does make earlier- or later-stage investments on a selective basis.Current investments include Kayak.com
Kayak.com
KAYAK is a technology company providing online travel tools through its global family of websites and mobile applications. Started by cofounders of Expedia, Orbitz, and Travelocity, KAYAK allows users to compare information from hundreds of other travel websites in one display when booking travel...
, Mark Logic
Mark Logic
MarkLogic Corporation is an enterprise software company that helps organizations manage unstructured information and Big Data. The company’s flagship product is MarkLogic Server, which is a database for unstructured information...
, LifeSize
LifeSize
LifeSize, a division of Logitech, is a video and audio communications company that provides high definition video conferencing endpoints and accessories, infrastructure products and a cloud-based video collaboration platform. LifeSize's worldwide headquarters is located in Austin, Texas...
, Zappos.com
Zappos.com
Zappos.com is an online shoe and apparel shop currently based in Henderson, Nevada.In July 2009, the company announced it would be acquired by Amazon.com in an all-stock deal worth about $1.2 billion. Since its founding in 1999, Zappos has grown to be the largest online shoe store.-Inception:Zappos...
, TeleNav
TeleNav
TeleNav, Inc. is a wireless location-based services company that provides several services including global positioning system navigation, local search, mobile advertising & commerce, enterprise mobility and workflow automation...
, ShoreTel
ShoreTel
ShoreTel is a company based in Sunnyvale, CA. They are a provider of commercial, closed-source VoIP products. Current implementations of ShoreTel systems include telephone handsets, as well as voicemail servers, switching hardware, analog phone outputs, and other telecommunications-related...
, Qunar.com, PowerReviews, Tumri, and Zuora. Past investments include comScore
ComScore
comScore is a Internet marketing research company providing marketing data and services to many of the Internet's largest businesses. comScore tracks all internet data on its surveyed computers in order to study online behavior....
(NASDAQ: SCOR), Isilon Systems
Isilon Systems
Isilon Systems, a division of EMC, is headquartered in Seattle, Washington, USA and sells clustered storage systems and software for digital content and other unstructured data, which includes but is not limited to video, audio, digital images, computer models, PDF files, scanned information, and...
(NASDAQ: ISLN), Navini (acquired by Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems, Inc. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Jose, California, United States, that designs and sells consumer electronics, networking, voice, and communications technology and services. Cisco has more than 70,000 employees and annual revenue of US$...
), SideStep
SideStep
- Description :SideStep is a metasearch engine for travel: it searches and consolidates results from more than 200 travel websites. The site searches more than 150,000 hotels and 600 airlines in the United States and worldwide...
(acquired by Kayak.com
Kayak.com
KAYAK is a technology company providing online travel tools through its global family of websites and mobile applications. Started by cofounders of Expedia, Orbitz, and Travelocity, KAYAK allows users to compare information from hundreds of other travel websites in one display when booking travel...
), and Valere (acquired by Eltek
Eltek
Eltek ASA is a global power conversion specialist that develop and market energy systems for telecom, renewable energy, electric vehicles and industrial applications...
).
Lehman Brothers bankruptcy and LBVP spin out
On September 15, 2008, Lehman BrothersLehman Brothers
Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. was a global financial services firm. Before declaring bankruptcy in 2008, Lehman was the fourth largest investment bank in the USA , doing business in investment banking, equity and fixed-income sales and trading Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (former NYSE ticker...
filed for bankruptcy protection. As part of the liquidation process, Lazard
Lazard
Lazard Ltd is the parent company of Lazard Group LLC, a global, independent investment bank with approximately 2,300 employees in 42 cities across 27 countries throughout Europe, North America, Asia, Australia, Central and South America...
was appointed to sell certain interests in Lehman Brothers Venture Partners and its other private investment units.
In January 2009, HarbourVest Partners
HarbourVest Partners
HarbourVest Partners is a private equity fund of funds and one of the largest private equity investment managers globally. The firm invests in all types of private equity funds, including venture capital and leveraged buyout funds, and also directly in operating companies...
, a Boston private equity fund of funds
Fund of funds
A "fund of funds" is an investment strategy of holding a portfolio of other investment funds rather than investing directly in shares, bonds or other securities. This type of investing is often referred to as multi-manager investment...
, financed the spinout of Tenaya, acquiring Lehman's existing investment and unfunded commitments to Tenaya venture funds.
External links
- Tenaya Capital (company website)