Sapphire Ventures
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Sapphire Ventures (stylized as SAPPHIRE) is a
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 Menlo Park,
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 ...
,
Austin Austin refers to: Common meanings * Austin, Texas, United States, a city * Austin (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin (surname), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin Motor Company, a British car manufac ...
, and
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
. The firm is considered one of the world's premier venture capital firms. The firm primarily invests in
Series B A venture round is a type of funding round used for venture capital financing, by which startup companies obtain investment, generally from venture capitalists and other institutional investors. The availability of venture funding is among the ...
through
IPO An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...
technology companies A technology company (or tech company) is a company that focuses primarily on the manufacturing, support, research and development of—most commonly computing, telecommunication and consumer electronics–based—technology-intensive products and ...
, as well as tech-focused early stage venture firms,
seed In botany, a seed is a plant structure containing an embryo and stored nutrients in a protective coat called a ''testa''. More generally, the term "seed" means anything that can be Sowing, sown, which may include seed and husk or tuber. Seeds ...
, and
Series A A series A is the name typically given to a company's first significant round of venture capital financing. It can be followed by the word round, investment or financing. The name refers to the class of preferred stock sold to investors in exchan ...
early-stage sports, media, and entertainment start-ups. Notable Sapphire-backed companies include
23andMe 23andMe Holding Co. is an American personal genomics and biotechnology company based in South San Francisco, California. It is best known for providing a direct-to-consumer genetic testing service in which customers provide a saliva testing, sali ...
, Alteryx,
Auth0 Okta, Inc. (formerly SaaSure Inc.) is an American identity and access management company based in San Francisco. It provides cloud software that helps companies manage and secure user authentication into applications, and for developers to build ...
,
Block Block or blocked may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Block programming, the result of a programming strategy in broadcasting * W242BX, a radio station licensed to Greenville, South Carolina, United States known as ''96.3 ...
(
Square In geometry, a square is a regular polygon, regular quadrilateral. It has four straight sides of equal length and four equal angles. Squares are special cases of rectangles, which have four equal angles, and of rhombuses, which have four equal si ...
),
Box A box (plural: boxes) is a container with rigid sides used for the storage or transportation of its contents. Most boxes have flat, parallel, rectangular sides (typically rectangular prisms). Boxes can be very small (like a matchbox) or v ...
,
Current Currents, Current or The Current may refer to: Science and technology * Current (fluid), the flow of a liquid or a gas ** Air current, a flow of air ** Ocean current, a current in the ocean *** Rip current, a kind of water current ** Current (hydr ...
, Degreed, DocuSign,
Fitbit Fitbit is a product lining, line of wireless-enabled wearable technology, physical fitness monitors and activity trackers such as smartwatches, pedometers and monitors for heart rate, quality of sleep, and stairs climbed as well as related soft ...
, IAS, JumpCloud,
Kaltura Kaltura, Inc. is a New York-based software company founded in 2006. It operates in several major markets: webinars and virtual events, enterprise video content management and online video platform (OVP), educational technology (virtual classroo ...
,
Linkedin LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented Social networking service, social network. It was launched on May 5, 2003 by Reid Hoffman and Eric Ly. Since December 2016, LinkedIn has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft. ...
, Livongo,
Looker ''Looker'' is a 1981 American science fiction thriller film written and directed by Michael Crichton, starring Albert Finney, James Coburn, Susan Dey, and Leigh Taylor-Young. It follows a series of mysterious deaths plaguing female models wh ...
,
MuleSoft MuleSoft, LLC. is a software company headquartered in San Francisco, California, that provides integration software for connecting applications, data and devices, founded in 2006. The company's Anypoint Platform of integration products is designe ...
, Monday.com,
Paytm Paytm (an acronym for "Pay Through Mobile") is an Indian Multinational corporation, multinational Fintech, financial technology company, that specializes in digital wallet, digital payments and financial services, based in Noida, India. Paytm ...
,
Ping Identity Ping Identity Corporation is an American software company established in 2002 by Andre Durand and Bryan Field-Elliot. It is headquartered in Denver with development offices in Vancouver, Tel Aviv, Austin, Bristol, Grenoble, Boston and Edinburgh. ...
, Sumo Logic, Wise ( TransferWise).


History

The firm was founded in 1996 as the venture capital arm of multinational software conglomerate
SAP Sap is a fluid transported in the xylem cells (vessel elements or tracheids) or phloem sieve tube elements of a plant. These cells transport water and nutrients throughout the plant. Sap is distinct from latex, resin, or cell sap; it is a s ...
and spun out as an independent company in 2011, rebranding to Sapphire Ventures in 2014. At the time, Sapphire Ventures managed $1.4 billion and had invested in more than 125 companies, with 10 companies going public and 17 getting acquired. In 2012, the firm launched Sapphire Partners, a real-time fund making investments in early-stage venture capital funds based in North America, Europe, and Israel. The strategy also includes direct co-investing alongside Sapphire Partners' GPs. In 2015, Sapphire partnered with technology companies
Cisco Systems Cisco Systems, Inc. (using the trademark Cisco) is an American multinational corporation, multinational digital communications technology conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, m ...
and
Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational technology conglomerate. It is focused on industrial automation, building automation, rail transport and health technology. Siemens is the largest engineering company in Europe, and holds the positi ...
to co-host the first industry summit on the
Internet of Things Internet of things (IoT) describes devices with sensors, processing ability, software and other technologies that connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the Internet or other communication networks. The IoT encompasse ...
, named ''"IoT: Empowering The Enterprise"'' in
San Jose, California San Jose, officially the City of San José ( ; ), is a cultural, commercial, and political center within Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area. With a city population of 997,368 and a metropolitan area population of 1.95 million, it is ...
. Sapphire had been an investor in Control4, an IoT company which completed its initial public offering in 2013. In 2019, the firm launched Sapphire Sport, a fund dedicated to backing companies at the intersection of sports, media, and entertainment. Backers of the fund included
Manchester City Manchester City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the English football league system, top flight of Football in England, English footbal ...
's
City Football Group City Football Group Limited (CFG) is a British-based holding company that administers association football clubs. The group is owned by three organisations, of which 81% is majority-owned by Abu Dhabi United Group, 18% by the American firm Silve ...
(CFG) alongside owners, investors, and family offices from the
National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...
(NFL),
Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...
(MLB),
National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...
(NBA),
National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...
(NHL), and
Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...
(MLS). Later in 2019, Sapphire Ventures re-launched #OpenLP, a community to foster idea sharing, open dialogue and overall greater connectivity among entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and limited partners (LPs). That year, Sapphire also raised $1.4 billion across investment strategies, including a $150 million opportunity fund to support larger deals. In 2021, the firm raised $1.7 billion in February and an additional $2 billion in November across multiple investment strategies, with its
assets under management In finance, assets under management (AUM), sometimes called fund under management, refers to the total market value of all financial assets that a financial institution—such as a mutual fund, venture capital firm, or depository institutio ...
surpassing $8.8 billion. This increase in capital also allowed the firm to expand its Portfolio Growth capabilities. Later that year, Sapphire made a major expansion in Europe and appointed Annalise Dragic as partner, making Dragic one of the youngest female venture capital partners in Europe. In 2022, Sapphire Ventures joined the board of the National Venture Capital Association with one of the firm's partners, Beezer Clarkson serving from 2022 through 2026. The firm additionally became the official sponsor of PitchBook's podcast. In early 2023, the firm announced a new $181 million fund for Sapphire Sport.


Investment Strategies

Sapphire has funds that comprise three primary investment strategies: Sapphire Ventures, Sapphire Partners, and Sapphire Sport spanning across early through growth stages and through
direct Direct may refer to: Mathematics * Directed set, in order theory * Direct limit of (pre), sheaves * Direct sum of modules, a construction in abstract algebra which combines several vector spaces Computing * Direct access (disambiguation), ...
and fund-of-fund investments.


Sapphire Ventures

Sapphire Ventures invests in high-growth, expansion-stage technology companies, specifically focusing on
artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...
&
machine learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of study in artificial intelligence concerned with the development and study of Computational statistics, statistical algorithms that can learn from data and generalise to unseen data, and thus perform Task ( ...
, B2B
SaaS Software as a service (SaaS ) is a cloud computing service model where the provider offers use of application software to a client and manages all needed physical and software resources. SaaS is usually accessed via a web application. Unlike oth ...
,
web3 Web3 (also known as Web 3.0) is an idea for a new iteration of the World Wide Web which incorporates concepts such as decentralization, blockchain technologies, and token-based economics. This is distinct from Tim Berners-Lee's concept of th ...
,
cyber security Computer security (also cybersecurity, digital security, or information technology (IT) security) is a subdiscipline within the field of information security. It consists of the protection of computer software, systems and networks from thr ...
, data & analytics,
devops DevOps is the integration and automation of the software development and information technology operations. DevOps encompasses necessary tasks of software development and can lead to shortening development time and improving the development life ...
,
fintech Financial technology (abbreviated as fintech) refers to the application of innovative technologies to products and services in the financial industry. This broad term encompasses a wide array of technological advancements in financial services, ...
, health tech, and vertical
SaaS Software as a service (SaaS ) is a cloud computing service model where the provider offers use of application software to a client and manages all needed physical and software resources. SaaS is usually accessed via a web application. Unlike oth ...
.


Sapphire Partners

Sapphire Partners is a
limited partner A limited partnership (LP) is a type of partnership with general partners, who have a right to manage the business, and limited partners, who have no right to manage the business but have only limited liability for its debts. Limited partnership ...
that backs early-stage tech venture funds, from seed funds as small as $40 million up to series A investors with more than $100 million in capital. The strategy has invested in funds including 
Union Square Ventures Union Square Ventures (USV) is an American venture capital firm based in New York City. The firm has backed more than 130 startups, including Twitter, Etsy, Stripe, Coinbase, Zynga, Tumblr, Stack Overflow, Meetup, Kickstarter, MongoDB, ...
, Amplify Partners, SaaStr, Point Nine Capital, Data Collective, and Screendoor among others. The strategy was originally set up as a $405 million
fund of funds A "fund of funds" (FOF) is an investment strategy of holding a portfolio of other investment funds rather than investing directly in stocks, bonds or other securities. This type of investing is often referred to as multi-manager investment. A f ...
and was later modified to recycle distributions to meet future contribution obligations. Additionally, along with this investment strategy, Sapphire supports an online community called #OpenLP aimed at educating venture investors and tech entrepreneurs about issues related to the venture ecosystem which it relaunched in 2019.


Sapphire Sport

Sapphire Sport invests in early-stage technology companies at the intersection of sport, media and entertainment. In early 2019 the strategy launched a $115 million investment vehicle, and in 2023 it another $181 million fund. The strategy has been backed by affiliates of the world's largest and most well-known sports leagues such as
City Football Group City Football Group Limited (CFG) is a British-based holding company that administers association football clubs. The group is owned by three organisations, of which 81% is majority-owned by Abu Dhabi United Group, 18% by the American firm Silve ...
as well as
Adidas Adidas AG (; stylized in all lowercase since 1949) is a German athletic apparel and footwear corporation headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, Germany. It is the largest sportswear manufacturer in Europe, and the second largest in the ...
,
AEG The initials AEG are used for or may refer to: Common meanings * AEG (German company) ; AEG) was a German producer of electrical equipment. It was established in 1883 by Emil Rathenau as the ''Deutsche Edison-Gesellschaft für angewandte El ...
,
SAP Sap is a fluid transported in the xylem cells (vessel elements or tracheids) or phloem sieve tube elements of a plant. These cells transport water and nutrients throughout the plant. Sap is distinct from latex, resin, or cell sap; it is a s ...
,
Sinclair Broadcast Group Sinclair, Inc., doing business as Sinclair Broadcast Group, is a publicly traded American telecommunications conglomerate that is controlled by the descendants of company founder Julian Sinclair Smith. Headquartered in the Baltimore suburb o ...
, and
Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as the Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh and Eighth Avenue (Manhattan), Eig ...
. In early 2023 Investments have included Aglet, Breathwrk, Buzzer, Fevo, Flowhaven, Green Park, Jackpot.com, Manicore, Mixhalo, Overtime, PlayVS, POAP, Tonal, and Trust. Exits include MyCujoo and Phoenix Labs.


Portfolio Growth

Sapphire's Portfolio Growth division works with its portfolio companies and venture funds to offer support in the areas of customer, partner, and executive talent introductions. As part of the firm's $1.7 billion capital raise in 2021, the Portfolio Growth division saw an expansion. The division also has a "centers of excellence" strategy which offers founders support with sales and GTM strategies, international expansion, insights into how CIO and CXO enterprise decision-makers evaluate new and emerging technologies, and capital market oversight. The division makes hundreds of executive talent and customer introductions each year. The firm was recognized during the
COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...
pandemic for coming up with creative ways to guide and share playbooks developed for and during the pandemic.


Investments

Since the firm's founding, Sapphire has invested in more than 130 companies across 10 countries, with more than 70 exits across 30 IPOs and 45
acquisitions Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of a company, business organization, or one of their operating units is transferred to or consolidated with another entity. They may happen through direct absorpt ...
Lahiri, Anusuya
"Sapphire Ventures Rakes In $1.7B To Fund Tech Startups"
(c) Benzinga via
Yahoo! Finance Yahoo Finance is a media property that is part of the Yahoo network. It provides financial news, data and commentary including stock quotes, press releases, financial reports, and original content. It also offers online tools for personal fin ...
, February 4, 2021. Retrieved 2021-02-06.
making it one of the most active venture capital firms based on public exits. Notable Sapphire-backed portfolio companies that have experienced IPOs or acquisitions include: *
23andMe 23andMe Holding Co. is an American personal genomics and biotechnology company based in South San Francisco, California. It is best known for providing a direct-to-consumer genetic testing service in which customers provide a saliva testing, sali ...
(Merged with
SPAC SPAC primarily refers to a special-purpose acquisition company, a method of taking a company public by merging it with an already public investment company. SPAC may also refer to: * Henry Crown Sports and Aquatics Center, a sports facility at No ...
) * Alteryx (IPO) * Apigee (IPO, Acquisition by
Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...
) *
Auth0 Okta, Inc. (formerly SaaSure Inc.) is an American identity and access management company based in San Francisco. It provides cloud software that helps companies manage and secure user authentication into applications, and for developers to build ...
(Acquired by
Okta In meteorology, an okta is a scale of measurement used to describe the amount of cloud cover at any given location such as a weather station. Sky conditions are estimated in terms of how many eighths of the sky are covered in cloud, ranging fro ...
) * AvidXchange (IPO) *
Block Block or blocked may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Block programming, the result of a programming strategy in broadcasting * W242BX, a radio station licensed to Greenville, South Carolina, United States known as ''96.3 ...
/
Square In geometry, a square is a regular polygon, regular quadrilateral. It has four straight sides of equal length and four equal angles. Squares are special cases of rectangles, which have four equal angles, and of rhombuses, which have four equal si ...
(IPO) * Braze (IPO) *
Box A box (plural: boxes) is a container with rigid sides used for the storage or transportation of its contents. Most boxes have flat, parallel, rectangular sides (typically rectangular prisms). Boxes can be very small (like a matchbox) or v ...
(IPO) *
Cazoo Cazoo is a British automotive online marketplace and classified advertising business based in Richmond, London, Richmond, London. Cazoo is currently owned by MOTORS, following its acquisition from Cazoo Holdings Limited by O3 Industries and Novum ...
(Merged with SPAC) * Control4 (IPO) * DocuSign (IPO) * ExactTarget (IPO Acquired by
Salesforce Salesforce, Inc. is an American cloud-based software company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It provides applications focused on sales, customer service, marketing automation, e-commerce, analytics, artificial intelligence, and ap ...
) *
Fitbit Fitbit is a product lining, line of wireless-enabled wearable technology, physical fitness monitors and activity trackers such as smartwatches, pedometers and monitors for heart rate, quality of sleep, and stairs climbed as well as related soft ...
(IPO, Acquired by Google) * Five9 (IPO) *
Integral Ad Science Integral Ad Science (IAS) is an American publicly traded technology company that analyzes the value of digital advertising placements. Integral Ad Science is known for addressing issues around fraud, viewability and brand risk, as well as TRAQ, ...
(IPO) * JFrog (IPO) *
Kaltura Kaltura, Inc. is a New York-based software company founded in 2006. It operates in several major markets: webinars and virtual events, enterprise video content management and online video platform (OVP), educational technology (virtual classroo ...
(IPO) *
Linkedin LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented Social networking service, social network. It was launched on May 5, 2003 by Reid Hoffman and Eric Ly. Since December 2016, LinkedIn has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft. ...
(IPO, Acquired by
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...
) * Livongo (IPO, Merger with
Teladoc Teladoc Health, Inc. is a multinational telemedicine and virtual reality, virtual preferred provider organization, healthcare company headquartered in the United States. Primary services include telehealth, medical opinions, artificial intellige ...
) *
Looker ''Looker'' is a 1981 American science fiction thriller film written and directed by Michael Crichton, starring Albert Finney, James Coburn, Susan Dey, and Leigh Taylor-Young. It follows a series of mysterious deaths plaguing female models wh ...
(Acquired by
Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...
) *
MuleSoft MuleSoft, LLC. is a software company headquartered in San Francisco, California, that provides integration software for connecting applications, data and devices, founded in 2006. The company's Anypoint Platform of integration products is designe ...
(IPO, Acquired by
Salesforce Salesforce, Inc. is an American cloud-based software company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It provides applications focused on sales, customer service, marketing automation, e-commerce, analytics, artificial intelligence, and ap ...
) * Monday.com (IPO) *
Paytm Paytm (an acronym for "Pay Through Mobile") is an Indian Multinational corporation, multinational Fintech, financial technology company, that specializes in digital wallet, digital payments and financial services, based in Noida, India. Paytm ...
(IPO) *
Ping Identity Ping Identity Corporation is an American software company established in 2002 by Andre Durand and Bryan Field-Elliot. It is headquartered in Denver with development offices in Vancouver, Tel Aviv, Austin, Bristol, Grenoble, Boston and Edinburgh. ...
(IPO, Acquired by
Thoma Bravo Thoma Bravo, LP is an American private equity and growth capital firm based in Chicago, Illinois. It is known for being particularly active in acquiring enterprise software companies and has over $130billion in assets under management . It ...
) * Sumo Logic (IPO) * Wise / TransferWise (IPO) Some of Sapphire's current investments include: 6Sense, BetterUp, BlockDaemon, Brightfield, Catchpoint,
Current Currents, Current or The Current may refer to: Science and technology * Current (fluid), the flow of a liquid or a gas ** Air current, a flow of air ** Ocean current, a current in the ocean *** Rip current, a kind of water current ** Current (hydr ...
, Clari, Degreed, feedzai, JumpCloud, LeanData, Mercury, Pendo, Reltio, and Tetrate.


Recognition

CB Insights CB Insights is a private company with a business analytics platform and global database that provides market intelligence on private companies and investor activities. The platform is targeted at private equity, venture capital, investment bank ...
recognized Sapphire Ventures as Top 5 VC based on participation in major tech exits. Specifically, the independent study compiled a list of VCs with at least five of the top 100 exits in the period between Q1 2013 and Q2 2015 and ranked each VC according to how many of these exits they were involved in. Sapphire Ventures was named #4 on the list with 10 exits, behind Accel,
New Enterprise Associates New Enterprise Associates (NEA) is an American-based venture capital firm. NEA focuses investment stages ranging from seed stage through growth stage across an array of industry sectors. With over $25 billion in committed capital, NEA is one of t ...
and
Sequoia Capital Sequoia Capital Operations, LLC is an American venture capital firm headquartered in Menlo Park, California, specializing in seed stage, early stage, and growth stage investments in private companies across technology sectors. the firm had appro ...
. PitchBook highlighted Sapphire Ventures as a Top 5 VC based on public exits in 2016. The firm was named alongside Sequoia, IVP, Accel,
New Enterprise Associates New Enterprise Associates (NEA) is an American-based venture capital firm. NEA focuses investment stages ranging from seed stage through growth stage across an array of industry sectors. With over $25 billion in committed capital, NEA is one of t ...
,
DAG Ventures DAG Ventures is an American venture capital firm based in Palo Alto, California. DAG Ventures works with startups in providing early stage and growth stage funding. Since its founding in 2004, by Tom Goodrich and John Cadeddu, the firm has backe ...
, Bessemer, and
Kleiner Perkins Kleiner Perkins, formerly Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), is an American venture capital firm which specializes in investing in incubation, early stage and growth companies. Since its founding in 1972, the firm has backed entrepreneur ...
. Inc. Magazine named Sapphire Ventures a "founder friendly" investor in both 2022 and 2021. In 2022, Sapphire was recognized as one of the "world's premier venture capital firms", specifically noting the capabilities of the firm to invest across verticals within software including web3 and next generation media.


References

{{reflist


External links


Official website
Financial services companies established in 1996 Venture capital firms of the United States American companies established in 1996