Venrock has a legacy of investing in innovative and disruptive companies, but we are always thinking of the future. Forbes takes an in-depth look at our business, our portfolio and our people in this story about reinvention. Forbes speaks with our investors and portfolio company CEOs to weave a story about our rich past, current successes, and bright future.
Wondering what’s been going on at Venrock? 2012 has been a remarkable year, with many exciting portfolio developments. You can catch up with the latest happening at at the firm in the 2012 Venrock Newsletter. Check it out for highlights from the past year, including a brief Q&A with Dollar Shave Club founder, Mike Dubin.
It is no surprise that American universities foster entrepreneurial spirit and talent. The University Entrepreneurship Project recently did a study that tracked investments in student-run startups over the last five years across six universities. Overall, Venrock is the leader in investments in student entrepreneurs, with an astounding 31 deals made over the course of the study. Venrock is excited to continue working with the next generation of innovators! Read more about the study on PE Hub.
The Wall Street Journal has announced their annual Innovation Award winners, and Venrock companies Nest Labs and CloudFlare won their categories, energy and network and internet technologies, respectively. Congratulations to all of the winners! The Wall Street Journal received 536 applications from over two dozen countries. From that pool, the judges chose a total of 37 winners and runners-up in 18 categories. See the full list on the Wall Street Journal.
Welcome to the Venrock family, Nest Labs! This amazing team is focused on making technology that’s simple, fresh and helpful, like the world’s first learning thermostat. Users who install the thermostat in their homes can save an average of $173 annually on their home heating and cooling bills. Read more about this news on greentechmedia.
A big congratulations to Bryan Roberts (#38), Ray Rothrock (#49) and Brian Ascher (#67) for making the 2012 Forbes Midas List. Bryan Roberts, “the dean of healthcare IT,” was also featured in an accompanying story, The VCs Who Are Investing In Health IT.
Today the NVCA welcomed Ray Rothrock as their incoming Chairman for the 2012-2013 term. Ray has been very involved with the NVCA in recent years as a board member and will be leading the charge for the upcoming year, building on the great work that has been done with the JOBS Act, SEC exemption, and various other initiatives. According to Ray, “The venture capital industry must continue to evolve in its support of innovation. Our mission must remain to back great entrepreneurs whose visions for new companies and new industries are essential to America’s growth and prosperity.” Congratulations Ray!
Last week, Venrock co-sponsored the participation of 82 student energy club leaders from more than 30 universities to attend the 3rd annual ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit (photographed here). This conference is designed to bring together key players from across the energy ecosystem and Venrock’s Matthew Nordan was a featured speaker on the topic of capital.
2011 was a pivotal year for the energy sector – the world witnessed a colossal nuclear power disaster at Fukushima, Japan and the venture capital flameout of Solyndra. Until recently the energy sector was hot among investors, but what now? Ray Rothrock takes a candid look at the energy sector in, “Venture Capital and Energy in the United States: Where to From Here,” published by The Huffington Post on New Year’s Day.
Venrock’s Matthew Nordan wrote a four-part series of posts about the state of cleantech venture capital, including The Money, The Investors, The Companies and Final Thoughts. The posts were published by GigaOm and also appear on Matthew’s blog, Secret Forumula.