The Deal
Sunday, November 8, 
4:29 pm

Canopy Ventures goes independent with $100M fund

  Share     E-Mail    Discussion    Print Story

When former Novell Inc. CEO Ray Noorda founded the Canopy Group in 1995 to manage his fortune, the fund became a pioneer in venture capital in Utah, where Novell was largely responsible for fostering a growth in high-tech startups.

Today, as Canopy Ventures II launches as the first Noorda family venture vehicle with a truly independent structure, it joins a handful of dedicated venture funds active in the state. Funds including VSpring Capital, UV Partners and Epic Ventures (formerly Wasatch Venture Fund) are active in sourcing deal flow among startups in the state and the Rocky Mountain region, and groups including Sorenson Capital, Innoventures Capital Partners and MountainWest Capital Network also support private technology companies.

rheinz.jpg The Canopy Group invested about $100 million in venture deals on an ad hoc basis from 1995 to 2006, when managers Ron Heinz (pictured) and Brandon Tidwell formed Canopy Ventures I as a dedicated fund with $95 million from the Canopy Group. Canopy II closed on Monday May 19 with $100 million. While the Noorda family remains its largest limited partner, the fund operates for the first time under a management structure, with Heinz and Tidwell no longer operating as employees of the Canopy Group, but rather as general partners of the fund drawing annual management fees and holding a carried interest in the fund's success.

Heinz says there are no set plans to expand fundraising to institutional investors in future funds, but he does plan to increase the size of each fund, and the current vehicle will expand to include life science investments in addition to its original focus in information technology. -- Clifford Carlsen

See May 20 press release from Canopy Ventures
See May 19 story from the Salt Lake City Tribune

Continue reading below

Also on Dealscape





Post a comment




The Deal Pipeline

Deal Video


Inside The Deal: Linklaters' Schmidt says how regulators handled Pfizer Inc.'s acquisition of Wyeth is an outlier of how others merger reviews will be conducted.


More video...

Crisis On Wall Street
Technology
Deals of The Decade

Community

Industry Insight

Dealing with frozen bank lending

If your bank is not willing to lend, what can you do as your company continues to seek growth?


Judgment Call

The coming age of the renminbi

The Chinese currency will play an increasingly important role in international commerce and finance.


Industry Insight

Banking on PE investments

Howls of protest greeted the FDIC policy statement, but the financial services industry should get over it.



©Copyright 2008, The Deal, LLC. All rights reserved. Please send all technical questions, comments or concerns to the Webmaster.