Norwest Launches $3 Billion Fund NVP XVI to Empower Visionary Leaders Creating Businesses for the Future

PALO ALTO, Calif., Dec. 14, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Norwest Venture Partners, a leading venture capital and growth equity investment firm, today announced it has closed a $3 billion fund, Norwest Venture Partners XVI, LP. The new fund will target innovative companies with transformational businesses, empowering its portfolio leaders with the resources and connections to enhance their growth and create sustainable value. NVP XVI brings the firm's total capital under management to $12.5 billion.

Norwest has a long track record of working with visionary founders and CEOs – from companies such as Dave, Gong, Ritual, Swiggy, Udemy and Vuori – who choose Norwest for the team's strategic guidance, as well as the latitude to build companies that drive positive change and impact on business and society.

"Dror Nahumi and Norwest showed conviction and belief in the company back in 2016, at a time when others didn't," said Amit Bendov, co-founder and CEO of Gong. "Since then, they've helped us recruit key executives, introduced us to customers and connected our senior team with other leaders in the portfolio to share best practices and learn from one another."

"Norwest was the first institutional investor to back Vuori," said Joe Kudla, founder and CEO of Vuori. "Jon Kossow and team understood my vision, offered guidance and resources and never over-inserted themselves in running our business. Norwest truly partners with its portfolio to build solid, sustainable companies for the future."

Norwest will continue to employ a multi-stage, multi-sector approach to investing in leadership teams capable of building paradigm-shifting businesses across consumer, enterprise and healthcare sectors. The fund invests globally, with offices in North America, India and Israel.

New Investments and Liquidity Events

Since its last $2 billion fund closed in November 2019, Norwest has made new investments in more than 60 companies, including Classy, Dave, Devoro Medical, Fabric, Faire, ICON, Qualified, UPSIDE Foods and VanMoof. Over the same period, the Norwest team worked closely with 29 portfolio companies to achieve significant liquidity events across a wide range of industries:

• Consumer – Opendoor, Talkspace, Udemy
• Enterprise – Aporeto, CyberX, Galvanize, Shape Security
• Healthcare – Devoro Medical, VisitPay
• India – Five Star Business Finance, Kotak Mahindra Bank, NSE, Swiggy

Leading with a Worldview

For years, Norwest has helped founders build companies with strong governance to minimize environmental and social harm. Norwest's portfolio is a longstanding testament to helping high-integrity founders achieve their visions, a commitment formalized through the firm's environmental, social and governance (ESG) policy. Recent investments in companies with an environmental or social focus include Classy, Grove Collaborative, ICON, Imperfect Foods, supplier.io and UPSIDE Foods.

"We are excited to formalize our dedication to backing companies that also care about environmental and social sustainability with the introduction of an ESG policy in parallel with our continued commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI)," said Sonya Brown, general partner of Norwest. "We have long invested in companies capable of driving lasting change and will continue to do so with our new fund."

The push for a more inclusive and equitable society is also one of the most crucial, future-shaping movements that Norwest champions. Norwest's work on DEI is continuing to build on its commitment to invest in founders from underrepresented groups. For example, Norwest has invested in 52 women-founded companies to date, most recently adding Babylist, Pequity and Praxis Labs to the portfolio, building on investments in such companies as Birdies, Galvanize, HoneyBook, Intersect ENT, JOLYN, Kendra Scott, Madison Reed, Minted, Modsy, OfBusiness, Policygenius, Ritual, SENREVE, Silk Road Medical and Talkspace.

"Since first investing in our seed round six years ago, Lisa Wu and the Norwest team have always focused on making Ritual a better company and have guided us at every turn," said Katerina Schneider, founder and CEO of Ritual. "They've supported our mission to build a sustainable business that pushes for greater accountability and transparency in the industry. It's been a valuable partnership."

To learn more about Norwest's worldview, please visit this page.

Paving the Way for the Next Generation of Investors

Norwest also announced several key hires and promotions:

• Tiba Aynechi will join as a general partner on the healthcare team in January 2022, following 11 years at Novo Holdings A/S, where she focused on early- and mid-stage biotechnology, medtech and healthcare IT. Some of her notable investments include MDLIVE, Mirum Pharmaceuticals and Nkarta Therapeutics.
• Dave Zilberman joined the firm as the newest general partner on the enterprise team in 2020. Prior to Norwest, Zilberman was managing director at Comcast Ventures, where he made notable investments in DocuSign, EdgeConneX and Slack.

Additionally, several senior leaders have been promoted within the firm:

• Parker Barrile and Dror Nahumi each have been named co-sector heads of the consumer and enterprise teams, respectively.
• Stew Campbell and Ran Ding have been promoted to partners on the growth equity team.
• Ryan McDonald was promoted to principal on the healthcare team.

About Norwest Venture Partners

Norwest is a leading venture and growth equity investment firm managing more than $12.5 billion in capital. Since its inception, Norwest has invested in more than 650 companies and currently partners with more than 200 companies in its venture and growth equity portfolio. The firm invests in early to late-stage businesses across a wide range of sectors with a focus on consumer, enterprise, and healthcare. The Norwest team offers a deep network of connections, operating experience, and a wide range of impactful services to help CEOs and founders scale their businesses. Norwest has offices in Palo Alto and San Francisco, with subsidiaries in India and Israel. For more information, please visit www.nvp.com. Follow Norwest on Twitter @NorwestVP.

All brands, names or trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners.

SOURCE Norwest Venture Partners