Venrock

{{short description|American venture capital firm}} {{Infobox company | name = Venrock Management, LLC | logo = Venrock 2023 Logo.png | logo_caption = Venrock logo | type = Limited liability company | foundation = {{Start date and age|1969}} | founder = Laurance Rockefeller | key_people = | location = Palo Alto, California, United States | industry = Venture capital | products = Investments | assets = | homepage = {{URL|venrock.com}} | num_employees = }}

'''Venrock''' (portmanteau of Venture and Rockefeller) is an American venture capital firm formed in 1969 to build upon the successful investing activities of the Rockefeller family<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Reinhold |first=Robert |date=6 February 1984 |title=STARTING UP IN SILICON VALLEY: LONG HOURS, FORSAKEN LIVES |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/02/06/business/starting-up-in-silicon-valley-long-hours-forsaken-lives.html |access-date=16 December 2024 |work=The New York Times}}</ref> that began in the late 1930s. It has offices in Palo Alto, California, and New York City.

==History== Beginning in 1934, Laurance S. Rockefeller (1910–2004) the fourth of the six children of John D. Rockefeller Jr. began investing in early-stage businesses.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |last=Kaufman |first=Michael T. |date=2004-07-12 |title=Laurance S. Rockefeller, Passionate Conservationist And Investor, Is Dead at 94 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/12/business/laurance-s-rockefeller-passionate-conservationist-and-investor-is-dead-at-94.html |access-date=2026-03-06 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> The first was a store that sold Finnish furniture. The second, borne of his friendship with the pilot Eddie Rickenbacker, led to the creation of Eastern Airlines.<ref name=":1" />

He continued investing portions of his family’s fortune and ultimately grew roughly $8.7 million into more than $28 million by the late 1950s. After identifying an early-stage opportunity, he would occasionally bring his brothers and sister in as partners. Using his wealth to seed start-up ventures was a relatively unknown practice at the time.<ref name=":1" />

In 1969, Rockefeller formalized these activities by establishing Venrock Associates as a limited partnership funded by family members<ref name=":2">{{Cite news|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/kerryadolan/2013/05/09/how-venrock-is-reinventing-itself/ |title=How Venrock Is Reinventing Itself|last=Dolan|first=Kerry A.|work=Forbes|access-date=2018-08-13|language=en}}</ref> and some of the institutions the family supported including the Museum of Modern Art, Rockefeller University and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.<ref name=":1" /> By 1996, Venrock had financed 221 early-stage companies across aviation, electronics, computers, and biotechnology.<ref name=":1" /> Some of its earliest investmens include Intel, Apple, 3Com and Gilead Sciences.<ref name=":2" />

Venrock closed its seventh fund in July 2014 with 8 partners and its eighth fund in January 2017 with 15 partners, each fund totalling $450 million.<ref name=tc-close>{{cite news |last=Loizos |first=Connie |date=January 26, 2017 |title=Venrock has raised $450 million for its eighth fund — just like its seventh fund |url=https://techcrunch.com/2017/01/26/venrock-has-raised-450-million-for-its-eight-fund-just-like-its-seventh-fund/ | work=TechCrunch |access-date=June 20, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/kerryadolan/2013/05/09/how-venrock-is-reinventing-itself/#59e054781289|title=How Venrock Is Reinventing Itself|last=Dolan|first=Kerry A.|work=Forbes|access-date=2017-12-06|language=en}}</ref>

==Investments== Venrock invested more than $2.5 billion in more than 440 companies, resulting in 125 initial public offerings.{{citation needed|date=May 2017}} Venrock focuses its investments on early-stage and start-up companies in information technology, healthcare and emerging technologies. These include: Intel, Apple,<ref name=":0" /> AppNexus, Astranis, StrataCom, Check Point Software, Dapper Labs, DoubleClick, 3Com Corporation, Mosaic, PGP, Itek, Digex, Interos,<ref>{{Cite press release|last=Interos|date=2020-03-12|title=Interos Raises $17.5M from Venrock and Kleiner Perkins to Grow Third-Party Risk Management Platform|url=https://www.globenewswire.com/en/news-release/2020/03/12/1999289/0/en/Interos-Raises-17-5M-from-Venrock-and-Kleiner-Perkins-to-Grow-Third-Party-Risk-Management-Platform.html|access-date=2021-08-16 |publisher=GlobeNewswire News Room |language=en}}</ref> Shape Security, Phoenix, Second Rotation (gazelle), RedSeal, CTERA Networks, and Juno Therapeutics. It also has a significant venture in the nascent nanotechnology field, with early funding of Nanosys and the nanotech division of Du Pont.<ref>{{cite news |last= Feder|first=Barnaby J. |date=March 15, 2004 |title=TECHNOLOGY; Bashful vs. Brash in the New Field of Nanotech |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/15/business/technology-bashful-vs-brash-in-the-new-field-of-nanotech.html | work=The New York Times |access-date=May 2, 2017}}</ref> Others include BioTime.<ref>{{cite web|title=SEC Schedule 13G, filed Feb. 17, 1999|url=http://yahoo.brand.edgar-online.com/DisplayFiling.aspx?TabIndex=2&FilingID=1363847&companyid=11441&ppu=%252fDefault.aspx%253fcompanyid%253d11441%2526amp%253bformtypeID%253d346|access-date=2013-08-15|archive-date=2016-03-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306115227/http://yahoo.brand.edgar-online.com/displayfiling.aspx?amp%3Bformtypeid=346&companyid=11441&filingid=1363847&ppu=%2Fdefault.aspx%3Fcompanyid%3D11441&tabindex=2|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title= Bloomberg Link speaker profile |url= http://www.bloomberglink.com/people/michael-d-west-ph-d/ |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130803060041/http://www.bloomberglink.com/people/michael-d-west-ph-d/ |archive-date= 2013-08-03 }}</ref>

In the healthcare sector with partners such as Bryan Roberts, Venrock has invested in athenahealth, Grand Rounds, HealthSouth Corporation, MedPartners, Inc., Castlight Health, Caliper Technologies Corporation, Centocor, Geron,<ref>{{cite web |title=SEC Schedule 13G, filed Feb. 17, 1999 |url=http://yahoo.brand.edgar-online.com/DisplayFiling.aspx?TabIndex=2&FilingID=1363847&companyid=11441&ppu=%252fDefault.aspx%253fcompanyid%253d11441%2526amp%253bformtypeID%253d346 |access-date=2013-08-15 |archive-date=2016-03-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306115227/http://yahoo.brand.edgar-online.com/displayfiling.aspx?amp%3Bformtypeid=346&companyid=11441&filingid=1363847&ppu=%2Fdefault.aspx%3Fcompanyid%3D11441&tabindex=2 |url-status=dead }}</ref> senolytic startup UNITY Biotechnology,<ref name="TimmermanUNITY">{{cite news|last1=Timmerman|first1=Luke|title=Arch, Fidelity, Bezos Bet $116M On Startup To Fight Diseases Of Aging|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/luketimmerman/2016/10/27/drugs-for-diseases-of-aging-arch-fidelity-bezos-bet-116m-on-startup-unity-biotech/#1cc916ce7789|access-date=2 January 2017|work=Forbes|date=27 October 2016}}</ref> Genetics Institute, Idec Pharmaceuticals Corporation, Illumina, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Sirna Therapeutics, and Sugen.{{citation needed|date=May 2017}}

==References== {{reflist}}

== Further reading == * Harr, John Ensor, and Peter J. Johnson. ''The Rockefeller Century: Three Generations of America's Greatest Family''. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1988. * Winks, Robin W. ''Laurance S. Rockefeller: Catalyst for Conservation''. New York: Island Press, 1997.

== External links == * [http://www.venrock.com/ Company Website]

Category:Financial services companies established in 1969 Category:Companies based in Menlo Park, California Category:Rockefeller family Category:Venture capital firms of the United States