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Like a lot of veteran venture capital firms with large funds, Battery
Ventures has recently increased its emphasis on late-stage deals. It has even taken
companies private as platforms for consolidation in industries that may not being growing as quickly as sectors it targets with early-stage investments. Battery's latest foray into the later-stage investment scene didn't go to the
public markets, but to a managed sale announced today by 3M Corp., which is selling
HighJump Software, a venture-backed supply-chain software company it acquired
from Gemini Investors, St. Paul Venture
Capital and Upper Lake Growth
Capital Partners in 2004, to Battery. 3M originally acquired the company to use its supply-chain chain expertise to promote its other products. 3M continued to grow it
organically, even acquiring additional technology to move into the beverage
and transportation industries.
"We had been looking
for a platform asset in the supply-chain space that had enough scale as a
starting point before 3M made the strategic decision to divest," Tabors says. "It
has done quite well under 3M, and they have continued to innovate the product
to where it is considered by many, including us, as the leader in the market." Battery closed a $750 million new fund last
summer. Tabors says the firm will look for additional deals where it can acquire lat- stage or public companies as platforms for
growth, even putting some leverage on the companies, as it did with
HighJump, bringing in Wells Fargo Foothill as a debt investor. Tabors says HighJump
is profitable, but while terms of the deal were not
disclosed, he says Tabors also says the firm has
no immediate plans to alter HighJump's business model, which involves a mix of
purely licensed software and hosted subscription sales, adding that the market
will determine the extent to which it offers its software as a service. -- Clifford Carlsen See May 9 press release from 3M
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