Norwest Venture Partners

Norwest Venture Partners

Company type	Private
Industry	Venture Capital + Growth Equity
Founded	1961
Headquarters	Menlo Park & San Francisco
Key people	Promod Haque, Jeff Crowe, Jon Kossow
Total assets	$15.5 billion[1]
Number of employees	125
Website	www.nvp.com

Norwest Venture Partners (Norwest) is an American venture and growth equity investment firm.[2] The firm targets early to late-stage venture and growth equity investments across several sectors, including cloud computing and information technology, Internet, SaaS, business and financial services, and healthcare. Headquartered in Menlo Park, California, Norwest has offices in San Francisco and subsidiaries in Mumbai, India and Tel Aviv, Israel.[3] The firm has funded more than 700 companies since inception.[1]

History

Northwest Venture Fund, a private equity and venture capital affiliate of Norwest Corporation, was founded in Minneapolis in 1961. It later merged with Wells Fargo in 1998.[4]

The Northwest Growth Fund grew under the leadership of CEO Robert Zicarelli, including the opening of an office in Silicon Valley. Zicarelli retired in 1988 and was succeeded by Daniel Haggerty who retired in the 1990s.[5] George J, Still, Jr. (now partner emeritus) and Promod Haque took over as managing partners in 1994.[6]

Norwest's main LP is Wells Fargo (and Norwest Corporation before Wells Fargo merged with Norwest).[7]

In January 2016, the firm announced Norwest Venture Partners XIII, a $1.2B fund, and Wells Fargo was the sole investor in this fund.[8] In February 2018, the firm announced Norwest Venture Partners XIV, a $1.5B fund, in which Wells Fargo is a major investor.[9] In November 2019, the firm announced Norwest Venture Partners XV, a $2B fund, bringing its total capital under management to $9.5B.[10]

In December 2021,[11] the firm announced Norwest Venture Partners XVI, a $3B fund, bringing its total capital under management to $12.5B.[2][12]

In April 2024, the firm announced NVP XVII, LP, a $3B fund, bringing Norwest's total capital under management to $15.5B.[13]

Investments

Notable investments for Norwest include: Adaptive Insights,[14] Avetta,[15] Casper,[16] Dairy Queen,[17] Cray[17] Dave,[18] Kendra Scott,[19] Opendoor,[20] Plaid,[21] Spotify,[22] Uber,[22] Talkspace,[23] Udemy,[24] and Vuori.[15]

Recognition

• Inc. Founder Friendly Investors[25]
• VCJ 50: The Top Venture Fundraisers of 2021[26]
• Top 25 Private Equity Firms for Growth Companies[27]
• Private Equity International 300[28]

See also

• List of venture capital firms

References

1. "Norwest raises $3 billion global fund". April 26, 2024 – via The Economic Times - The Times of India.
2. "Norwest Launches $3 Billion Fund NVP XVI to Empower Visionary Leaders Creating Businesses for the Future". Norwest Venture Partners. Retrieved 2022-02-09.
3. "Contact". Norwest Venture Partners. Retrieved 2022-02-09.
4. Richard Florida (Carnegie Mellon University) and Martin Kenney (Ohio State University). Venture Capital and High Technology Entrepreneurship. Elsevier Science Publishing Co, 1988
5. EXECUTIVE CHANGES: Norwest Venture Capital Management. The New York Times, November 28, 1988
6. "George J Still, Stillwater Growth Corp I: Profile and Biography". Bloomberg.com.
7. Bolista, Phil (2010-07-01). "John Lindahl". Twin Cities Business. Retrieved 2019-11-29.
8. Norwest Raises Third Consecutive $1.2 Billion Fund in Five Years [1], TechCrunch, January 20, 2016
9. Venture firm Norwest raises $1.5 billion fund, its largest ever [2], Reuters, February 14, 2018
10. "NVP XV Our $2B Fund". Norwest Venture Partners. Retrieved 2022-02-11.
11. "Our Newest Fund is Sweet XVI". Norwest Venture Partners. Retrieved 2022-02-10.
12. "Jeff Crowe". Norwest Venture Partners. Retrieved 2022-02-09.
13. Temkin, Marina (April 25, 2024). "Norwest Venture Partners raises $3B for 17th vehicle, maintaining fund size despite market downturn". TechCrunch.
14. Cromwell Schubarth (June 11, 2018). "Here are the big winners in Workday's $1.6B purchase of Adaptive Insights". Silicon Valley Business Journal. Retrieved October 7, 2022.
15. "Exclusive: Norwest Venture Partners has closed its $3 billion seventeenth fund". Yahoo Finance. April 25, 2024.
16. Lung, Tiffany. "How Luxury DTC Brand Senreve Found Growth In Asia Amid Pandemic". Forbes. Retrieved 2021-11-29.
17. Peter DeLevett (January 20, 2014). "Elevator Pitch: Norwest's Promod Haque is the $35 billion man". Mercury News. Retrieved October 7, 2022.
18. Jonathan Shieber (September 30, 2019). "Upstart banking company Dave is now worth $1 billion, as Norwest puts in $50 million". TechCrunch. Retrieved October 7, 2022.
19. Will Anderson (December 22, 2016). "Kendra Scott's $1 billion empire: PE firm buys into jewelry business at big valuation". Austin Business Journal. Retrieved October 7, 2022.
20. Kyle Tibbitts (November 30, 2016). "Online real estate company Opendoor raises $210M". Opendoor. Retrieved October 7, 2022.
21. Connie Loizos (December 14, 2021). "Norwest unveils a $3 billion fund, which is nearly one-fourth the capital it has ever raised". TechCrunch. Retrieved October 7, 2022.
22. Connie Loizos (November 14, 2019). "Norwest closes its 15th fund with $2 billion - its biggest vehicle to date". TechCrunch. Retrieved October 7, 2022.
23. Jordan Crook (June 14, 2016). "Talksapce online therapy platform raises $15 million Series B". TechCrunch. Retrieved October 7, 2022.
24. Lora Kolodny (May 8, 2014). "Udemy Raises $32M to Teach 'Lifelong Learners' Online, Around the World". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved October 7, 2022.
25. "The Top 146 Founder-Friendly PE and VC Firms". Inc.com. Retrieved 2022-02-17.
26. Goldfisher, Alastair (2021-11-01). "VCJ 50: The top venture fundraisers of 2021 are making waves". Venture Capital Journal. Retrieved 2022-02-17.
27. "The Top 25 Private Equity Firms for Growth Companies of 2021 | GrowthCap". Retrieved 2022-02-17.
28. "PEI 300 | Top private equity firms". Private Equity International. Retrieved 2022-02-17.

• Norwest Venture Partners forms new early-stage fund. San Jose Business Journal, April 17, 2006
• Saving Yipes. Forbes, July 17, 2002
• Old Money Chasing the New; Seeing Windfalls, Big Banks Finance Start-Ups Again. The New York Times, December 24, 1999

External links

• Official website