Highland Capital Partners is a global

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 with offices in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley ...

, and

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. Highland has raised over $4 billion in committed capital and invested in more than 280 companies, with 47 IPOs and 134 acquisitions.

History

Investments and investment funds

Highland is typically the first institutional investor in the companies they back. Since its founding in 1988, the firm has raised eleven

venture capital funds 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 ...

: * 1988 — Highland Capital Partners * 1992 — Highland Capital Partners II * 1996 — Highland Capital Partners III * 1998 — Highland Capital Partners IV * 2000 — Highland Capital Partners V * 2001 — Highland Capital Partners VI * 2006 — Highland Capital Partners VII * 2009 — Highland Capital Partners VIII * 2013 — Highland Capital Partners 9 * 2018 — Highland Capital Partners 10 * 2020 — Highland Capital Leaders Fund

Notable investments

The company has invested some $4 billion in more than 280 companies since its founding, including 2U, Auris Health, Bromium, Clearbanc, Everlywell, Gigamon, Imprivata LevelUp,

Lululemon Athletica Lululemon, commonly styled as lululemon ( ; all lowercase), is a Canadian-American multinational athletic apparel retailer headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, and incorporated in Delaware, United States, as Lululemon Athletica Inc. ...

, Malwarebytes, Qihoo 360, Quattro Wireless, Rent the Runway,

Scopely Scopely, Inc. ( ) is an American video game developer and Video game publisher, publisher. The company is headquartered in Culver City, California, with offices across the United States, EMEA and Asia, with its largest location in Barcelona, Spain ...

, ThredUp, Turbonomic and VistaPrint.

Current and former employees

Notable members of the team include Bob Davis, the founder of

Lycos Lycos, Inc. (stylized as LYCOS), is a web search engine and web portal established in 1994, spun out of Carnegie Mellon University. Lycos also encompasses a network of email, web hosting, social networking, and entertainment websites. The company ...

; Gaurav Tewari, the founder of Omega Venture Partners, and formerly of Highland Capital Partners; and Wyc Grousbeck, owner of the

Boston Celtics The Boston Celtics ( ) are an American professional basketball team based in Boston. The Celtics compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NBA), Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference (NBA), ...

. In February 2005, Thomas G. Stemberg, the founder and former

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

of Staples, joined Highland.

Other

Highland Capital Partners is not affiliated with

Highland Capital Management Highland Capital Management is an alternative investment, alternative investment management firm that manages hedge funds, structured finance, structured investment vehicles and mutual funds. The firm invests in global public equities, as well as ...

, the distressed investment firm,

hedge fund A hedge fund is a Pooling (resource management), pooled investment fund that holds Market liquidity, liquid assets and that makes use of complex trader (finance), trading and risk management techniques to aim to improve investment performance and ...

sponsor, and

mutual fund A mutual fund is an investment fund that pools money from many investors to purchase Security (finance), securities. The term is typically used in the United States, Canada, and India, while similar structures across the globe include the SICAV in ...

manager based in

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

. In November 2020, several of the senior GPs partnered with Ian Friedman, former co-head of Goldman Sachs Investment Partners (Venture Capital and Growth Equity Team) and formed Highland Transcend Partners I, a SPAC that targets disruptive commerce, digital media, and enterprise software. The founding team consists of Friedman (CEO), Bob Davis (executive chairman), Dan Nova (chief investment officer) and Paul Maeder (CFO).

References

The Rebirth of Venture Capitalism

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

, September 24, 2006
COMPANY NEWS; STAPLES NAMES ITS CHIEF AS CHAIRMAN

, March 12, 2005

External links

* {{Venture capital firms 1988 establishments in Massachusetts Venture capital firms of the United States Companies based in Massachusetts Financial services companies established in 1988 Private equity firms of the United States