Norwest: Starting to Put $1.2 Billion to Work
Norwest Venture Partners late last year closed a huge new venture-capital fund of $1.2 billion, nearly double the size of the Silicon Valley venture firm’s last fund in 2006 that was $650 million. Now NVP is starting to put a chunk of that money to work.
NVP is investing $35 million into New York-based data warehousing and business intelligence firm 1010data, making it the first growth equity investment out of NVP’s new fund. Jon Kossow, who joined NVP as a partner last year to grow its growth equity practice–which essentially means the firm will be investing in mature companies that already have products and customers, instead of just young start-ups–will join 1010data’s board.
The 1010data investment is NVP’s first growth equity deal in a U.S. company since late 2007; in some previous U.S. growth equity deals, NVP was a passive investor and didn’t join the companies’ boards. The deal is just the latest sign of how NVP is diversifying its investment strategy and becoming more stage-independent. Last year, NVP also did a flurry of growth equity deals in India, for instance.
