Norwest Venture Partners

Norwest Venture Partners (Norwest) is an American venture and growth equity (GE) investment firm with more than $9.5B in capital under management. The firm targets early to late-stage venture and growth equity investments across several sectors, including cloud computing and information technology, Internet, software as a service, business and financial services, consumer and healthcare. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, Norwest has offices in San Francisco and subsidiaries in Mumbai and Bengaluru, India and Herzelia, Israel. The firm has funded more than 600 companies since inception. As of 2020, the firm has approximately 150 active companies across its venture and growth equity portfolio.[1]

Norwest Venture Partners
TypePrivate
IndustryVenture Capital + Growth Equity
Founded1961
HeadquartersPalo Alto & San Francisco
Total assets$9.5 billion
Number of employees
100 (2020)
Websitewww.nvp.com

History
History of private equity
and venture capital
Early history
(origins of modern private equity)
The 1980s
(leveraged buyout boom)
The 1990s
(leveraged buyout and the venture capital bubble)
The 2000s
(dot-com bubble to the credit crunch)

Norwest traces its roots back to 1961 with the formation of the Northwest Venture Fund, a private equity and venture capital affiliate of Norwest Corporation, a midwestern bank based in Minneapolis that merged with Wells Fargo in 1998. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Minneapolis was an early site for both venture capital and high-technology business.[2]

The VC industry was active with the formation of the first Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) and First Midwest Capital Corporation. In 1957, Control Data Corporation, a pioneering supercomputer company, was founded by William Norris. Two years later Norris was instrumental in the formation of the Northwest Growth Fund and the firm was active in the Minneapolis high-tech industry.[3]

The Northwest Growth Fund grew under the leadership of CEO Robert Zicarelli including the opening of an office in Silicon Valley. Zicarelli retired in 1988 and was succeeded by Daniel Haggerty who retired in the 1990s.[4] George J, Still, Jr. (now partner emeritus)[5] and Promod Haque took over as managing partners in 1994.[6]

Norwest's main LP is Wells Fargo (and Norwest Corporation before Wells Fargo merged with Norwest). Norwest's managing general partner, John Lindahl, was quoted in the article, "Having a sole limited partner means we do not have to spend time raising outside money and trying to communicate to 25 limited partners."[7]

In January 2016, the firm announced Norwest Venture Partners XIII, a $1.2B fund, and Wells Fargo was the sole investor in this fund.[8] In 2017, Norwest had 17 liquidity events, including nine company acquisitions and two initial public offerings.[9] In February 2018, the firm announced Norwest Venture Partners XIV, a $1.5B fund, in which Wells Fargo is a major investor.[10]

Notable investments for Norwest includes Dairy Queen, Spotify, Casper and Kendra Scott.

Executives

Norwest is led by senior managing partner Promod Haque[11] and managing partners Jeff Crowe[12] and Jon Kossow.[13]

  • Promod Haque - joined Norwest in 1990 and was named its senior managing partner in 2013. As of early 2019, his investments in more than 70 companies have produced more than $40 billion in exit values.[14] His recent investments include CognitiveScale, Dtex Systems, Health Catalyst, Prevedere, Shape Security, Simpplr and SlashNext.[15] Haque has been named to the Forbes Midas List of top tech investors since 2001, and in 2014 was named by Forbes as a “Hall of Fame” investor. 2016 marked his 12th appearance on the list, including 2004, when he was ranked the #1 venture capitalist based on performance over the previous decade.[14]
  • Jeff Crowe - joined Norwest in 2004 and became a managing partner in 2013. He worked in the tech world for 20 years as cofounder and CEO of software company Edify. In recent years, Crowe has invested in Jet.com (acquired by Walmart), as well as HoneyBook and Modsy. He currently serves on the boards of Common, Extole, Glint, Grove Collaborative, HoneyBook, Madison Reed, Modsy, Opendoor, Owler, and Talkspace. Crowe is responsible for Norwest's investments in Spotify, Uber and Minted.[16] He was named to the Forbes Midas List in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018.[17]
  • Jon Kossow - joined Norwest in 2009 and became a managing partner in 2018. Kossow focuses on growth equity opportunities in information services, software, internet, and business services. He was previously a director at Goldman Sachs and a principal at TA Associates in Menlo Park, California. His investments include Infutor, Cority, 1010data (acquired by Advance), Clarus Commerce (acquired by Trivergance), The Rainmaker Group (lease rent options assets acquired by RealPage) and The Retail Equation (acquired by Appriss). Kossow currently serves on the boards of Avetta, Cority, Infutor, Manta Media, The Rainmaker Group, Topo Athletic, and Wine Access, with additional active investments in ACL, Appriss and TurnItIn.[18]

See also

References
  1. Norwest Venture Partners Closes $1.5 Billion Fund, NVP XIV Norwest press release, February 14, 2018
  2. Richard Florida (Carnegie Mellon University) and Martin Kenney (Ohio State University). Venture Capital and High Technology Entrepreneurship. Elsevier Science Publishing Co, 1988
  3. Norwest Equity Partners - Our History , accessed July 17, 2017
  4. EXECUTIVE CHANGES: Norwest Venture Capital Management. The New York Times, November 28, 1988
  5. George J. Still, Jr. Crunchbase, accessed September 25, 2017
  6. Bloomberg - George J. Still Jr.
  7. Bolista, Phil (2010-07-01). "John Lindahl". Twin Cities Business. Retrieved 2019-11-29.
  8. Norwest Raises Third Consecutive $1.2 Billion Fund in Five Years , TechCrunch, January 20, 2016
  9. Crunchbase, accessed January 8, 2018
  10. Venture firm Norwest raises $1.5 billion fund, its largest ever , Reuters, February 14, 2018
  11. Company Overview of Haque Family Partners, Bloomberg, September 25, 2017
  12. Jeffrey M. Crowe - Executive Profile & Biography, Bloomberg, accessed September 25, 2017
  13. Jon Kossow - Crunchbase profile, accessed February 14, 2018
  14. #52 Promod Haque Forbes Midas List 2016.
  15. company website (accessed January 10, 2019).
  16. company website(accessed January 8, 2018).
  17. Jeff Crowe Forbes Midas List 2018
  18. Norwest Venture Partners Promotes Jon Kossow to Managing Partner Norwest press release, February 14, 2018
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