What do Changyou, Duoyuan, STR holdings, have in common?
Star backers. Look at their post-IPO performance
Ironwood Pharmaceuticals and Tesla are two venture-backed IPOs to watch. Robert Bryan is a former partner of Venrock and Tesla is backed by a stellar suite of VCs (Capricorn Management, Compass Venture Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, J.P. Morgan Bay Area Equity Fund, Technology Partners, Valor Equity Partners, VantagePoint Venture Partners and Westly Group.).
Plus, who can resists those flashy cars!
* Addition: I would add Jingko Solar to the list, which has raised more than $35m in VC funding from firms like CIVC, Shenzhen Capital Group Co. and Pitango Venture Capital, which is filing for $100m IPO.
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Ironwood Pharmaceuticals
Roberts, Bryan
Brief Biography
Dr. Bryan E. Roberts is Chairman of the Board of Pharmaceuticals, Inc. He has served as Director of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc. since 2001. Dr. Roberts joined Venrock, a venture capital investment firm, in 1997, where he serves as partner. From 1989 to 1992, Dr. Roberts worked in the corporate finance department of Kidder, Peabody & Co., a brokerage company. Dr. Roberts serves on the board of directors of several private companies, and he has previously served on the board of directors of athenahealth, Inc., XenoPort, Inc. and Sirna Therapeutics, Inc. He received a B.A. from Dartmouth College and a Ph.D. in chemistry and chemical biology from Harvard University.
-------Tesla Motors Inc. is the envy of all venture-backed companies. Not only is the electric vehicle developer the recipient of hundreds of millions of dollars in government funding, it’s also attracting new equity without having to solicit investors.
“This money was sort of an unanticipated round. We were approached by investors,” said Diarmuid O’Connell, vice president of business development, in an interview with VentureWire.
The company, which reached profitability in July, previously raised nearly $200 million in venture financing, according to VentureWire archives. Investors include Capricorn Management, Compass Venture Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, J.P. Morgan Bay Area Equity Fund, Technology Partners, Valor Equity Partners, VantagePoint Venture Partners and Westly Group.
Investors in the new round include Daimler AG, Abu Dhabi’s Aabar Investments PJSC, and new investor London-based Fjord Capital Parners. Tesla’s Konrad said there were other investors in the round who requested their names not be disclosed. Elon Musk, Tesla’s chief executive and major shareholder, didn’t participate in the Series F round, said Rachel Konrad, a spokeswoman for Tesla.
Daimler in May had invested $50 million in Tesla for a 10% stake and it then sold 40% of its position in Tesla to Aabar Investments, which holds a 9% stake in Daimler. Daimler and Aabar will continue to hold a combined 10% stake in Tesla after the latest investment in the Series F round, Konrad said.
The new cash will help the company accelerate its business plan and projects, including faster expansion of its retail stores, said O’Connell. “Right now we’ve raised the capital we need, plus some cushion to accelerate the projects,” he said.
Tesla has recently opened retail stores in London, New York, Seattle and two locations in California. It has secured locations in Chicago, Daina Beach, Fla., Washington, D.C., Monaco and Toronto for the next locations.
The company was selected by the U.S. Department of Energy in late June to receive $465 million in low-cost loans under its Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing program.
The $25 billion ATVM program, created under the 2007 Energy Security Act, is one of most desirable sources of funding for developers of clean vehicles. The program continues to receive one application per week on average, Carol Battershell, a senior advisor of the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy office of the DOE, told VentureWire on the sidelines of the Cleantech Forum in Boston last week.
Tesla will use $365 million of its DOE loans for the production, engineering and assembly of the all-electric family sedan Model S and $100 million for a powertrain manufacturing plant. The powertrain facility will be built in Palo Alto, Calif., and the company will soon announce the site for its Model S plant. O’Connell said that the site selection for the new plant is down to two locations: Downey or Long Beach, both in Los Angeles County.
