recently rated:

Rated by 20

2.6 2.8 3.6 2.8 3.2

3.0

Storm Ventures, Inc.

 

$$$$$ Menlo Park, US West

top rated funds:

Rated by 51

3.4 2.6 3.0 3.1 2.8

3.0

Draper Fisher Jurvetson

Certified

$$$$$ Menlo Park, US West

Rated by 24

3.7 2.6 3.0 2.7 3.0

3.0

Matrix Partners

Certified

$$$$$ Menlo Park, US East

Rated by 20

3.1 3.2 3.0 2.7 2.9

3.0

Gemini Israel Funds

Certified

$$$$$ Herzliya, ME / Africa

Rated by 26

3.1 2.9 3.0 2.9 3.0

3.0

Madrona Venture Group

Certified

$$$$$ Seattle, US West

Rated by 27

3.0 2.7 2.8 3.2 3.2

3.0

Flybridge Capital Partners

Certified

$$$$$ Boston, US East

Rated by 43

3.9 2.9 2.7 2.4 3.0

3.0

Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers

Certified

$$$$$ Menlo Park, US West

Rated by 18

2.7 3.1 2.6 3.6 3.2

3.0

Milestone Venture Partners

Certified

$$$$$ New York, US East

Rated by 22

2.3 3.1 2.9 3.3 3.5

3.0

Voyager Capital

Certified

$$$$$ Seattle, US West

Rated by 28

3.3 2.9 2.4 2.9 3.3

3.0

Venrock Associates

 

$$$$$ Menlo Park, US West

Rated by 17

2.6 2.7 3.1 3.7 2.9

3.0

FirstMark Capital - Pequot Ventures

Certified

$$$$$ New York, US East

Rated by 11

2.1 2.7 3.6 2.7 3.1

2.9

Southern Capitol Ventures

Certified

$$$$$ Raleigh, US East

Rated by 12

2.8 3.2 2.8 2.7 2.8

2.9

Bain Capital Ventures

 

$$$$$ Boston, US East

Rated by 23

2.7 3.0 3.1 2.6 3.2

2.9

Claremont Creek Ventures

Certified

$$$$$ Oakland, US West

Rated by 14

2.8 3.2 3.0 2.6 2.7

2.9

Eden Ventures

Certified

$$$$$ Bath, Europe

Rated by 13

2.6 3.2 2.7 2.7 2.7

2.8

DFJ Frontier

 

$$$$$ West Sacramento, US West

Rated by 13

2.9 2.9 2.7 2.9 2.7

2.8

Tugboat Ventures

 

$$$$$ Palo Alto, US West

Rated by 11

3.2 2.7 3.5 2.0 2.6

2.8

New York Angels

Certified

$$$$$ New York, US East

Rated by 15

2.8 3.0 2.9 2.4 2.8

2.8

Fairhaven Capital

 

$$$$$ Cambridge, US East

Rated by 13

2.5 2.9 2.7 3.0 3.1

2.8

Longworth Venture Partners

Certified

$$$$$ Waltham, US East

Rated by 16

2.8 2.4 3.4 2.9 2.7

2.8

BV Capital

 

$$$$$ San Francisco, US West

Rated by 10

2.8 2.7 2.8 2.5 3.1

2.8

Brook Venture Partners

Certified

$$$$$ Wakefield, US East

Rated by 27

3.0 2.9 3.0 2.6 2.4

2.8

Morgenthaler Ventures

 

$$$$$ Menlo Park, US West

Rated by 11

2.6 2.8 2.9 3.0 2.9

2.8

Genesis Partners

 

$$$$$ Herzliya, ME / Africa

Rated by 15

2.5 2.6 2.9 2.9 3.1

2.8

Steamboat Ventures

Certified

$$$$$ Burbank, US West

Rated by 40

3.1 2.6 3.1 2.7 2.6

2.8

MDV-Mohr Davidow Ventures

Certified

$$$$$ Menlo Park, US West

Rated by 15

2.5 2.9 3.3 2.3 2.6

2.7

Fuse Capital

 

$$$$$ Palo Alto, US West

Rated by 37

2.7 2.7 2.3 2.9 2.9

2.7

Intel Capital

 

$$$$$ Santa Clara, US West

Rated by 11

2.9 3.1 2.5 2.4 2.8

2.7

SOFTBANK Capital

 

$$$$$ Newton Center, US East

Rated by 39

3.5 2.4 2.6 2.9 2.2

2.7

Benchmark Capital

Certified

$$$$$ Menlo Park, US West

Rated by 35

3.1 2.8 2.6 2.3 2.7

2.7

Highland Capital Partners

Certified

$$$$$ Lexington, US East

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The declining economy and difficult IPO markets have made it increasingly hard for venture funds to price late stage equity. As a result, less and less late stage deals are getting done.

First, existing investors in late stage companies can not easily lead an internal round without a new investor pricing the round to satisfy the appearance of objectivity among their own investors, the limited partners.

Second, new investors have difficulty pricing later stage deals because evaluating the range exit opportunities is impossible right now. There have been no venture funded IPOs in the last quarter, and traditional public acquirers have seen a dramatic decrease in equity values and an inability to raise debt. Without public comparables or reference M&A deals, pricing equity is a guessing game.

On the other hand, early stage investments are largely based on pursuing market opportunities and owning certain percentages of preferred stock. A strong management team with a good market opportunity can raise capital without problem in today's market.

Your best shot as a late stage company is to conserve capital through cost savings and find a "friendly" to price your deal. Once a price is set, there is plenty of money for investment. The price is the hardest part to get. Any suggestions on some ways to land a "friendly""

After chasing VC's and Angels for about 18 months with no success, I found a way to launch my Company without either. Its called Purchase Order Financing or contract financing and it fits our Business Model perfectly. We offer a high margin consumer product sold through retail chain stores such as Lowes, Ace , etc. Thinking I needed a 1MM advertising budget to launch the product, I beat every bush twice trying to interest a VC or angel group and although I came close, I never got a term sheet.
Enter my now co-founder and VP Sales/Marketing with deep experience selling to chains who told me all we needed was some package advertrising and store displays. He met with some of his associates at a hardware convention and made some new contacts and within a week we had a nation-wide rep sales force. He also told me many former companies he had worked for often financed production of new products by using finace firms that specialize in contract financing (google Purchase Order Fianancing). They pay suppliers directly and as soon as you ship the goods the deal converts to a straight factoring situation and they send you a check for the difference between what you owe them and what you sold the goods for. We plan to use this option within the next 3 months.
Its a little expensive of course - 3%/month, but when your done, your done! No term sheets, no lawyers, no interest bearing notes, no new board members, etc. And when it comes time to give yourselves a bonus, guess what" Nobody to tell you haw much its got to be.
As luck would have it, we now have an angel group doing due diligence! I expect this is our Plan B but, in any case we can negotiate much better terms than we could have without the contract financing option that I have informed the angels we are also pursuing .
If your plan includes a short (90 day) delivery on a contract with a credit worthy customer, look at this possibility.