Canaan Partners, LLC (Canaan) is an American

venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...

firm headquartered in

Stamford, Connecticut Stamford () is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, outside of New York City. It is the sixth-most populous city in New England. Stamford is also the largest city in the Western Connecticut Planning Region, Connecticut, Weste ...

with offices in San Francisco, Menlo Park and New York City. The firm focuses on investing in early stage companies in the technology and healthcare industries. Since 2014, the firm has also been investing in technology companies based in

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

Background

In 1987, Harry Rein, Eric Young and several other employees at the venture capital unit of

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performed a

management buyout A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition in which a company's existing managers acquire a large part, or all, of the company, whether from a parent company or individual. Management- and/or leveraged buyouts became noted phenomena of 19 ...

to spin out the unit as an independent firm. The firm was subsequently named Canaan Partners and would be based in

Westport, Connecticut Westport is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. Located in the Gold Coast (Connecticut), Gold Coast along the Long Island Sound, it is northeast of New York City and is part of the Western Connecticut Planning Region, Connec ...

. In 2003, Rein left Canaan for a position with Foundation Medical Partners. Towards the end of 2013, the firm established Canaan Partners Israel in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

which would manage a $30 million fund to invest in Israeli technology companies. The fund would be managed independently of its American counterpart. In 2018, the firm unveiled a program named Canaan Beta where it sets aside part of its latest fund to its youngest employees to manage. In 2017, $20 million was allocated to two of its youngest employees. Canaan primarily invests in the technology and healthcare sectors. It allocates 60% of its capital to technology investments and 40% to healthcare investments. On average its investments are $15–20 million per company. Notable investments include

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LendingClub LendingClub Corporation is an American financial services company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It was the first peer-to-peer lender to register its offerings as securities with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and to ...

, The RealReal, Turo and

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. Compared to peer VC firms, Canaan invests in more female-managed companies. 40% of its investment team are women, four times the industry average.

References

External links

* {{authority control American companies established in 1987 Companies based in Stamford, Connecticut Financial services companies established in 1987 Privately held companies based in Connecticut Venture capital firms of the United States 1987 establishments in Connecticut