CRV (venture capital firm)

CRV
Company typePrivate
IndustryVenture capital
Founded1970
HeadquartersPalo Alto, California, United States
ProductsInvestments
Total assets$4.3 billion
Number of employees
20+
Websitewww.crv.com

CRV is a venture capital firm focused on early-stage investments in technology. The firm was founded in 1970 to commercialize research that came out of MIT. Its name comes from the Boston area Charles River.

History

The firm has raised over $4.3 billion since inception across 18 funds. Upon closing of the 16th fund, the firm rebranded to CRV.[1] Prior to that, CRV's 15th fund closed in February 2012 with $375 million of investor commitments.[2] CRV's 14th fund raised $320 million of commitments.[3]

In 2013, it purchased a large portion of Pebble Technology for $15 million and is credited as the primary reason why Pebble was sold to Fitbit in December 2016. This netted CRV nearly $40 million.[4]

In 2024, CRV returned 275 million dollars from the 500 million it had raised in its current fund back to investors, stating that their focus would shift away from late-stage investments and toward the early stage.[5]

Among CRV's portfolio companies are Aveksa,[6] mabl,[7] OneLogin,[8] Stella,[9] Sybase,[10] Yammer,[11] and Zendesk.[12]

References

  1. ^ Lawler, Ryan (14 July 2014). "Now That Charles River Ventures Has Closed Its 16th Fund, It Wants To Be Called CRV". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-07-15.
  2. ^ Charles River Raises A $375M Fifteenth Fund For Early Stage Investing. peHUB, February 28, 2012
  3. ^ Charles River Ventures Raises $320 Million For Its Fourteenth Fund. TechCrunch, March 30, 2009
  4. ^ Orlowski, Andrew. "Who killed Pebble? Easy: The vulture capitalists". www.theregister.co.uk.
  5. ^ Griffith, Erin (Oct 2, 2024). "A Venture Capital Firm Does Something Rare: Give Money Back". New York Times. Archived from the original on Oct 2, 2024. Retrieved Oct 2, 2024.
  6. ^ McBride, Ryan. "Investors Back Growing Bay State Software Firms Aveksa and Apparent Networks in Pair of Series C Financings". xconomy. Retrieved 5 April 2013.
  7. ^ Lardinois, Frederic (February 21, 2018). "With $10M in funding, Mabl brings machine learning to software testing". TechCrunch.
  8. ^ Gage, Deborah (October 3, 2013). "OneLogin Picks Up $13 Million to Manage Online Corporate Identities". Wall Street Journal.
  9. ^ "This week in N.Y.C. funding news: Ellevest, Ripple, KeyMe - New York Business Journal". Retrieved 2016-09-16.
  10. ^ Sybase President Gains The Confidence of Apple. The New York Times, August 25, 1987
  11. ^ Geron, Tomio. "Before $1.2 Billion Deal, Yammer Was Side Project: Largest Investor George Zachary". www.forbes.com.
  12. ^ Konrad, Alex. "Charles River Ventures Wins Big On Zendesk's IPO, But For Boston Venture It's Bittersweet". www.forbes.com.
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