Matrix Partners
Encyclopedia
Matrix Partners is a US based private equity
investment firm focusing on venture capital
investments. The firm invests in seed and early stage companies in the United States and India, particularly in the software, communications, semiconductors, data storage
, Internet
or wireless
sectors.
The firm has offices in Waltham, Massachusetts
, Palo Alto, California
, Mumbai, India and Beijing, China.
Matrix Partners is not connected with Matrix Private Equity Partners LLP or Matrix Securities, which are part of Matrix Group, a UK financial services business based in London.
. The firm's direct predecessor, Hellman Ferri Investment Associates (1977 to 1982), was founded by Paul J. Ferri and Warren Hellman
, founder of San Francisco based private equity firm, Hellman & Friedman
.
Among the firm's notable investments, Matrix Partners was an early stage investor in Apple Inc., Arrowpoint Communications
, Digium
, JBoss
, PSINet
, SanDisk
, Silverstream Software
, TheLadders.com
, Sonus Networks
, Tivoli Software
, Tollbridge Technologies
, VERITAS Software
, Vermeer Technologies Incorporated
, and Xilinx
.
In 1985, Matrix raised its first institutional
private equity fund
. Since then, Matrix has raised nine funds with total investor commitments of $2.4 billion. In 2001, Matrix Partners completed fundraising for Matrix Partners VII, a $1 billion venture capital fund. In 2006, Matrix raised Matrix Partners VIII fund, with $445 million of investor commitments. In 2006, Matrix also raised a separate $150 million India fund. In July 2009, Matrix Partners raised Matrix IX fund with $600m.
Private equity
Private equity, in finance, is an asset class consisting of equity securities in operating companies that are not publicly traded on a stock exchange....
investment firm focusing on venture capital
Venture capital
Venture capital is financial capital provided to early-stage, high-potential, high risk, growth startup companies. The venture capital fund makes money by owning equity in the companies it invests in, which usually have a novel technology or business model in high technology industries, such as...
investments. The firm invests in seed and early stage companies in the United States and India, particularly in the software, communications, semiconductors, data storage
Data storage device
thumb|200px|right|A reel-to-reel tape recorder .The magnetic tape is a data storage medium. The recorder is data storage equipment using a portable medium to store the data....
, Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
or wireless
Wireless
Wireless telecommunications is the transfer of information between two or more points that are not physically connected. Distances can be short, such as a few meters for television remote control, or as far as thousands or even millions of kilometers for deep-space radio communications...
sectors.
The firm has offices in Waltham, Massachusetts
Waltham, Massachusetts
Waltham is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, was an early center for the labor movement, and major contributor to the American Industrial Revolution. The original home of the Boston Manufacturing Company, the city was a prototype for 19th century industrial city planning,...
, Palo Alto, California
Palo Alto, California
Palo Alto is a California charter city located in the northwest corner of Santa Clara County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, United States. The city shares its borders with East Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Stanford, Portola Valley, and Menlo Park. It is...
, Mumbai, India and Beijing, China.
Matrix Partners is not connected with Matrix Private Equity Partners LLP or Matrix Securities, which are part of Matrix Group, a UK financial services business based in London.
History
Tracing its roots to 1977, Matrix was an active player in the development of the venture capital industry in the 1980sPrivate equity in the 1980s
Private equity in the 1980s relates to one of the major periods in the history of private equity and venture capital. Within the broader private equity industry, two distinct sub-industries, leveraged buyouts and venture capital experienced growth along parallel although interrelated tracks.The...
. The firm's direct predecessor, Hellman Ferri Investment Associates (1977 to 1982), was founded by Paul J. Ferri and Warren Hellman
Warren Hellman
F. Warren Hellman is a private equity investor and co-founder of Hellman & Friedman, a multi-billion dollar private equity firm...
, founder of San Francisco based private equity firm, Hellman & Friedman
Hellman & Friedman
Hellman & Friedman is a private equity firm, founded in 1984 by Warren Hellman and Tully Friedman, that makes investments primarily through leveraged buyouts and minority growth capital investments....
.
Among the firm's notable investments, Matrix Partners was an early stage investor in Apple Inc., Arrowpoint Communications
Cisco
Cisco may refer to:Companies:*Cisco Systems, a computer networking company* Certis CISCO, corporatised entity of the former Commercial and Industrial Security Corporation in Singapore...
, Digium
Digium
Digium, Inc. is a privately held communications technology company based in Huntsville, Alabama. Digium specializes in developing and manufacturing communications hardware and telephony software, most notably the open-source telephony platform Asterisk....
, JBoss
JBoss
JBoss Application Server is an open-source Java EE-based application server. An important distinction for this class of software is that it not only implements a server that runs on Java, but it actually implements the Java EE part of Java...
, PSINet
PSINet
PSINet was one of the first internet service providers , based in Northern Virginia, and a major player in the commercialization of the Internet until the company's bankruptcy in 2001 during the dot-com bubble and acquisition by Cogent Communications in 2002.-Growth:PSINet was founded in 1989 by...
, SanDisk
SanDisk
SanDisk Corporation is an American multinational corporation that designs, develops and manufactures data storage solutions in a range of form factors using the flash memory, controller and firmware technologies. It was founded in 1988 by Dr. Eli Harari and Sanjay Mehrotra, non-volatile memory...
, Silverstream Software
Novell
Novell, Inc. is a multinational software and services company. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Attachmate Group. It specializes in network operating systems, such as Novell NetWare; systems management solutions, such as Novell ZENworks; and collaboration solutions, such as Novell Groupwise...
, TheLadders.com
TheLadders.com
TheLadders.com is a private United States-based company providing an online job search service. It launched listing only vetted job offers with annual salaries of $100,000 or more. On 19 September, 2011 they removed the $100k minimum salary requirement, opening the site to job seekers who didn't...
, Sonus Networks
Sonus Networks
Sonus Networks, Inc. is a technology and telecommunications equipment company that provides voice infrastructure solutions for wireless and wireline service providers.-Corporate history:Sonus Networks was founded in 1997....
, Tivoli Software
Tivoli Software
Tivoli Software is the service management brand of the IBM Software Group. IBM purchased Austin-based Tivoli Systems, Inc. on March 4, 1996 and allowed existing executive management to operate Tivoli as a wholly owned subsidiary in the IBM Software Group...
, Tollbridge Technologies
Tollbridge Technologies
Tollbridge Technologies was a voice over broadband company founded in 1998 by Gary Tauss and Asher Waldfogel, cofounder of Redback Networks. Tollbridge was based in Santa Clara, California....
, VERITAS Software
VERITAS Software
Veritas Software Corp. was an international software company that was founded in 1983 as Tolerant Systems, renamed Veritas Software Corp. in 1989, and merged with Symantec in 2005. It was headquartered in Mountain View, California...
, Vermeer Technologies Incorporated
Vermeer Technologies Incorporated
Vermeer Technologies Incorporated was a software company founded in 1994 by Charles H. Ferguson and Randy Forgaard. Its products were FrontPage, a website/webpage development tool and Personal Web Server, a web server to complement developing in FrontPage...
, and Xilinx
Xilinx
Xilinx, Inc. is a supplier of programmable logic devices. It is known for inventing the field programmable gate array and as the first semiconductor company with a fabless manufacturing model....
.
In 1985, Matrix raised its first institutional
Institutional investor
Institutional investors are organizations which pool large sums of money and invest those sums in securities, real property and other investment assets...
private equity fund
Private equity fund
A private equity fund is a collective investment scheme used for making investments in various equity securities according to one of the investment strategies associated with private equity....
. Since then, Matrix has raised nine funds with total investor commitments of $2.4 billion. In 2001, Matrix Partners completed fundraising for Matrix Partners VII, a $1 billion venture capital fund. In 2006, Matrix raised Matrix Partners VIII fund, with $445 million of investor commitments. In 2006, Matrix also raised a separate $150 million India fund. In July 2009, Matrix Partners raised Matrix IX fund with $600m.
External links
- Matrix Partners (company website)
- ForEntrepreneurs.com (blog of David Skok, Matrix Partners)