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Shasta Ventures

Shasta Ventures
IndustryVenture capital
Founded2004
FounderRob Coneybeer, Ravi Mohan
HeadquartersMenlo Park, California
Websiteshastaventures.com

Shasta Ventures is an early-stage venture capital investment firm located in Silicon Valley that invests in enterprise and technology consumer startups.[1] It is located on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park.[2]

Funds

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Shasta's second fund of US$250 million included Nest Labs, which almost all by itself repaid the entire fund when it was sold to Google for $3.2 billion.[3] Shasta's third fund of $265 million was announced in September 2011.[4] The fourth fund, of $300 million, was announced in June 2014.[5]

Investment philosophy

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Shasta was originally focused on companies in the consumer technology space, with then managing director Tod Francis calling Mint.com a "classic Shasta" investment in September 2011.[4]

In September 2013, Rob Coneybeer of Shasta, the new managing director, said that he was betting big on hardware startups, citing Moore's Law-style continued performance improvements making opportunities for new hardware possible.[6]

Companies

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Mint.com

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Shasta Ventures was an early investor in Mint.com, an online personal finance management service that was bought in September 2009 by financial software company Intuit for US$170 million in cash.[7] An article by Alexia Tsotsis for TechCrunch quoted Shasta's managing director Tod Francis as using the phrase "Classic Shasta" to describe Shasta's investment in Mint.com.[4]

Nest Labs

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Shasta Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers were the only investors in the Series A round for Nest Labs (the home automation company) in September 2010. When Google later bought Nest Labs for US$3.2 billion in January 2014, Shasta had a net gain of about $200 million, enough to pay out "almost all" of the $250 million Shasta II fund.[3][8][9][10]

Other investments

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Shasta has invested in a number of other companies[11] such as Anaplan, Brandcast,[12] Entelo,[citation needed] Leanplum, Nextdoor,[13] Lithium Technologies,[14] Logoworks,[citation needed] Zuora,[15] Tally Technologies,[16][17][18] Spiceworks,[19] Stealth Security, and VoloMetrix.[citation needed]

Controversy

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In August 2019 partner Doug Pepper left the firm, potentially triggering a "key-man" event[20]

References

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  1. ^ "About Us". Shasta Ventures. Retrieved January 15, 2014.
  2. ^ "Contact Us". Shasta Ventures. Retrieved January 22, 2014.
  3. ^ a b Constine, Josh (January 13, 2014). "Who Gets Rich From Google Buying Nest? Kleiner Returns 20X On $20M, Shasta Nets ~$200M". TechCrunch. Retrieved January 22, 2014.
  4. ^ a b c Tsotsis, Alexia (September 21, 2011). "Shasta Ventures Closes New $265 Million III Fund". TechCrunch. Retrieved January 22, 2014.
  5. ^ Rusli, Evelyn. "Shasta Ventures Sticks to Basics With New $300 Million Fund". Wall Street Journal.
  6. ^ Lawler, Ryan (September 9, 2013). "Shasta Ventures' Rob Coneybeer On Why He's Betting Big On Hardware Startups". TechCrunch. Retrieved January 22, 2014.
  7. ^ Sanati, Cyrus (September 14, 2009). "Intuit to Buy Personal Finance Site Mint.com". New York Times (DealBook blog). Retrieved January 22, 2014.
  8. ^ Oreskovic, Alexei; Gupta, Poornima (January 14, 2014). "Kleiner Perkins, Shasta Ventures make about 20x their money on Nest Labs – Reuters". PEHub. Retrieved January 22, 2014.
  9. ^ "For Nest Investor Shasta Ventures, Persistence Pays". StrictlyVC. January 13, 2014. Retrieved January 22, 2014.
  10. ^ "Nest (company profile)". Shasta Ventures. Retrieved January 22, 2014.
  11. ^ "Companies". Shasta Ventures. Retrieved October 4, 2016.
  12. ^ Brandcast. "TPG Growth / Affinity Group, Marc Benioff, and Shasta Ventures Invest in Brandcast". www.prnewswire.com (Press release). Retrieved 2019-03-13.
  13. ^ Gannes, Liz (October 26, 2011). "Nextdoor Launches Private Social Networks for Neighborhoods". AllThingsD. Retrieved January 22, 2014.
  14. ^ Lawler, Ryan (January 5, 2012). "Lithium Technologies raises $53.4 million from NEA & SAP Ventures". GigaOm. Retrieved January 22, 2014.
  15. ^ Taulli, Tom (September 19, 2013). "Zuora: Ushering In The Subscription Economy". Forbes. Retrieved January 22, 2014.
  16. ^ Kolodny, Lora (19 May 2016). "Tally raises $15 million for app to make credit cards less expensive, easier to manage". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-06-01.
  17. ^ Lieber, Ron (2016-05-19). "A Service to Pay Off High-Interest Credit Cards, but a Bad Time to Start". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-06-01.
  18. ^ "San Francisco-based credit card management app Tally raises $15 million - Silicon Valley Business Journal". Silicon Valley Business Journal. Retrieved 2016-06-01.
  19. ^ "Shasta Ventures pools a $200M fund, invests with Google Ventures..." Reuters. 2011-07-15. Retrieved 2019-03-13.
  20. ^ Axios. "Top partner unexpectedly departs VC firm Shasta Ventures". Business Insider. Retrieved 2019-08-09.
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