Canaan Partners Raises $675 Million for its Tenth Fund

MENLO PARK, Calif., Oct. 16, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Canaan Partners, a multi-billion dollar venture capital firm, today announced that it has raised $675 million in commitments for Canaan X. Canaan Partners' tenth fund brings the total capital under management to over $4.2 billion. Fund X follows a banner year at Canaan with a dozen liquidity events in the past twelve months.

Canaan's recent exits include innovators in ecommerce, big data, cloud-based software, biopharmaceuticals and medical devices such as Ebates (acquired by Rakuten for $1 billion), Labrys Biologics (acquired by Teva Pharmaceutical for up to $825 million), Civitas Therapeutics (pending acquisition by Acorda Therapeutics for $525 million), Dermira ($125 million IPO), Durata Therapeutics (pending acquisition by Actavis for up to $800M), Skybox Imaging (acquired by Google for $500 million), Metacloud (acquired by Cisco) and Israel-based PrimeSense (acquired by Apple). 

"We've had a very exciting year with portfolio exits at Canaan, and we raised Fund X in record time," noted Maha Ibrahim, general partner of Canaan. "Our strategy for Canaan X will be similar to the proven diversified sector strategy we've used for almost three decades, with two-thirds of Fund X dedicated to information technology and one-third to healthcare. Also, we will continue to invest primarily in early stage and seed stage startups, the latter of which represents twenty-five percent of our portfolio."  Canaan's selective seed program has resulted in the founding of Advanced BioHealing (acquired by Shire for $750 million), Cardlytics (innovators of card-linked marketing), Kabam (which recently secured a $120 million investment from Alibaba) and Virsto Software (acquired by VMware).

"Our recent exits and portfolio reflect the exceptional entrepreneurs we back," noted Wende Hutton, general partner. "We are especially proud of Canaan's success in funding female entrepreneurs, and immigrant entrepreneurs who have co-founded over 20 percent of our portfolio companies. Regarding our success with women, we have six female investment professionals at Canaan; 12 of our portfolio companies have women CEOs; and 22 of our portfolio companies were co-founded by women. This is a much higher share than in the VC industry as a whole, where only 7 percent of investments go to female entrepreneurs."

In concert with the announcement of Canaan X, the firm announced the promotions of the following investors: Tim Shannon to general partner; Hrach Simonian to venture partner; and Brendan Dickinson, Julie Papanek and Roseanne Wincek to principal.

Technology

With Fund X, Canaan Partners will focus on finding future leaders in fintech, travel, big data, cloud, enterprise, SaaS, and consumer internet.  Canaan's current technology investments include Kabam, Lending Club, onefinestay, SOASTA, The RealReal and Zoosk.

Healthcare

Through Fund X, Canaan Partners will continue to invest in biopharmaceutical, medtech and Healthcare IT companies, particularly those addressing healthcare infrastructure. Canaan's current healthcare investments include Arvinas, Chrono Therapeutics, CytomX, Liquidia, Spinifex and Truveris.

About Canaan Partners

For nearly 30 years, Canaan Partners has been investing in entrepreneurs with visionary ideas to improve the way we live our lives.  With over $4.2 billion under management and more than 160 exits to date, Canaan has funded some of the world's most innovative companies in both technology and healthcare. Headquartered in Menlo Park, California, Canaan also has offices in New York City and Westport, Connecticut.   For more information, visit us at www.canaan.com and follow us on Twitter @canaanpartners.

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SOURCE Canaan Partners