End of the Road for Highway 12 Ventures

The shrinking of the venture capital industry mostly happens slowly and quietly. Firms simply taper off new investments, tend to their portfolio, turn the pages of their calendars and watch for exit opportunities over several years. Rarely do they make a point of advertising the fact that they’re going to wind down.

Highway 12 Ventures is different. The Idaho-based firm announced today on its blog that it won’t raise a new fund. Co-founder and Managing Partner Mark Solon wrote that limited partners expressed interest in investing in a potential third fund, but he said the industry’s lengthening time-to-exit horizon makes it hard to simultaneously manage the portfolio and raise a new fund.

In an interview, Solon confirmed the firm would shut down, and added that personal considerations were also behind the decision. Solon said he has two young teenagers and doesn’t want to miss the remaining years of their childhoods, and the firm’s next most-senior partner, Phil Reed, is 68 years old, so neither wanted to commit to another 10-year fund. But the full team will stick around for a while, he said.

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