Venture capitalists that invest in health care are increasingly moving into growth-equity investing, sinking large sums into companies to help them supercharge sales or buy competitors. While traditional health care VCs bet on drugs or medical devices in clinical trials, growth-equity investing targets companies with products and revenue, so the analysis is less on science and more on things like reimbursement and marketing strategy. Read more about this trend here in VentureWire….
An ugly fight has reportedly broken out between investors over gaming advertising network Mochi Media. TechCrunch reports that the company’s venture backers, which include Accel Partners and Shasta Ventures, are mulling over a deal that would give them their original investments back. TechCrunch reports that an investor at Accel Partners is pressuring the founders and management team to accept the deal, while other investors believe the start-up has plenty of cash and promise to keep going….
Here are 10 questions for well-known venture capitalist Bill Gurley of Benchmark Capital, including which deals he missed out on. Gurley’s answer? “It’s long and painful.” Overture, Akamai, Skype, Baidu, “and of course the big one,” Google. Give credit to Gurley, who has a lot of wins under his belt, for having the courage to answer. Most VCs shy from disclosing the ones that got away….
In the current grim economic environment, limited partners are paying even closer attention than usual to the key-man provisions on venture capital funds, which determine what happens if a person viewed as essential to the partnership walks away from it. Read the VentureWire story here….
Foundry Group’s Jason Mendelson took offense to the study issued yesterday by executive search firm Polachi that polled venture capitalists and found that more than half of them believe the venture capital industry is “broken.” Mendelson writes, “Having spent plenty of time bashing lawyers and the accounting profession, it’s only fair that I call out my own industry today. Y’all are really confused.” He then moves on to explain why “there’s never been a more exciting time to be involved in venture capital.”