Greycroft Partners

Greycroft Partners

Type	Private
Industry	Private equity Venture capital
Founded	2006
Founder	Alan Patricof Dana Settle Ian Sigalow
Headquarters	New York, New York and Los Angeles, California
Products	Venture capital
Number of employees	24
Website	greycroft.com

Greycroft Partners is an American venture capital firm, founded in 2006 by Alan Patricof, Dana Settle, and Ian Sigalow. The firm has offices in New York City and Los Angeles.

History

Greycroft was founded in 2006 by venture capital pioneer Alan Patricof, after leaving Apax Partners in 2005.^[1] Together with business partners Dana Settle and Ian Sigalow,^[2] Patricof wanted to return to early-stage investing via smaller transactions.^[3]

The firm was founded based on three principles:^[4]

1. Venture capital as a repeat business: Greycroft takes pride in the caliber of relationships they build with entrepreneurs over time.
2. The best VC firms are aligned with founders: Greycroft deliberately maintains smaller early stage funds to ensure fund economics and structure are aligned with founders. They have a separate growth fund that allows them to support entrepreneurs at any stage.
3. Entrepreneurs are better off with a flexible partner: Greycroft is flexible on check size, ownership percentage, and board seats.

Funds

Greycroft raised its first fund (Greycroft I) with $75 million of investor commitments in 2006,^[5] its second $131 million fund (Greycroft II) in 2010,^[5] and its third $175 million fund (Greycroft III) in 2012.^[6]

The firm is actively investing from two funds today:^[4]

• Greycroft IV: $200 million early-stage fund
• Greycroft Growth: $200 million growth-stage fund

The venture fund (Greycroft IV) invests between $100,000 and $5 million at inception, while the growth fund invests up to $20 million per deal. These two funds enable the firm to support entrepreneurs at any stage, from inception through exit.^[4]

According to Ian Sigalow, one of Greycroft's founders, the firm expected to make 15 to 20 early-stage deals and three or four growth-stage deals in 2014.^[5]

Investments

Greycroft has invested in 108 companies spread across 48 cities internationally, with the majority of these companies headquartered in the United States.^[7]

The firm primarily invests in the following sectors:^[7]

• Advertising technology
• Commerce
• Financial technology
• Gaming
• Software
• Publishing

Exits

Greycroft has realized over $2.6 billion in exits in the past 24 months.^[4]

Notable exits include:

• Braintree, acquired by PayPal in 2013 for $800 million^[8]
• Buddy Media, acquired by Salesforce.com in 2012 for $800 million^[9]
• Maker Studios, acquired by Disney in 2014 for $950 million^[10]
• Trunk Club, acquired by Nordstrom in 2014 for $350 million^[11]

References

1. "Patricof Goes Back To Early-Stage Investing". Reuters Buyouts. March 16, 2006.
2. "Legendary media investor Alan Patricof's new Web 2.0 life". Fortune. September 11, 2007.
3. "The World According to Alan Patricof". American City Business Journals. December 4, 2007.
4. "About Us". Greycroft Partners. Retrieved February 6, 2015.
5. "Early-Stage VC Greycroft Closes $200M Growth Fund". The Wall Street Journal. June 19, 2014.
6. {{url=http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20121126005544/en/Greycroft-Partners%E2%80%99-Fund-Closes-175-Million}}
7. "Companies and Investments". Greycroft Partners. Retrieved February 6, 2015.
8. "EBay's PayPal Acquires Payments Gateway Braintree For $800M In Cash". TechCrunch. September 26, 2013.
9. "Salesforce in talks to buy Buddy Media for over $800M, report says". VentureBeat. May 29, 2012.
10. "Disney to Buy Maker Studios in Deal Worth Up to $950 Million". TIME. March 24, 2014.
11. "Nordstrom Will Pay $350 Million for Trunk Club". Re/code. July 31, 2014.

External links

• Greycroft Partners (company website)
• Greycroft Partners on Twitter