How IVP built a VC firm to last

Actually, let me rephrase—I love “Come On Eileen,” but do I want to write a feature on Dexy’s Midnight Runners? Not really. Because the reality is that a one-hit wonder is an accident. What most people want is to be sustainably excellent at what they do over time. If I write one great story once, what am I? Now, if I write 500 great stories over an extended period of time? That’s longevity and that’s really something.

And that’s why I wrote this piece about IVP—the long-standing VC firm has raised $1.6 billion for its 18th fund. In case you’re wondering what IVP stands for, it’s “Institutional Venture Partners” and it breaks down quite literally, as general partner Steve Harrick explained to me. “Institutional” refers to the fact that their LPs and investors are institutions, “venture” is obvious, and “partners” speaks to the structure of IVP.

IVP’s been around since 1980 and was founded by Reid Dennis, an early VC who started his career in insurance, taking on angel investments and eventually founding the firm. Dennis never put his name on the shingle, and seems to always have bet specifically on people, if his 2009 interview with UC Berkeley is any indicator: 

“I have a very different point of view than Don Valentine at Sequoia, because he says, ‘If the market’s big enough, I’ll change the people.’ Well, changing people is a painful thing for them; it’s a painful thing for you. As far as I’m concerned, I think there are better ways to get along in this life, and you can do very, very well by betting on the best people and people that you’d enjoy working with.”

That’s a legacy that lives on at IVP and it’s salient to consider it now: Dennis, I learned yesterday, passed away last week. 

So, I don’t have an essay for you today—I have a feature that’s not about a one-hit wonder, but about longevity. Read the whole story here.

See you tomorrow,

Allie Garfinkle
Twitter: @agarfinks
Email: alexandra.garfinkle@fortune.com
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Joe Abrams curated the deals section of today’s newsletter.

VENTURE DEALS

- BigID, a New York City-based data security and compliance company, raised $60 million in funding. Riverwood Capital led the round and was joined by Silver Lake Waterman and Advent.

- NeuReality, a Caesarea, Isreal-based developer of AI inference chips that help AI systems generate content from the data they were trained on, raised $20 million in funding from the European innovation Council Fund, Varana Capital, Cleveland Avenue, XT Hi-Tech, OurCrowd, and others. 

- Superlinked, a San Francisco-based platform that turns data into vector embeddings that are compatible with machine learning, raised $9.5 million in seed funding. Index Ventures led the round and was joined by Theory Ventures, 20Sales, Firestreak, and others. 

- Zone, a Lagos, Nigeria-based developer of digital currency payment infrastructure, raised $8.5 million in seed funding. Flourish Ventures and TLcom Capital led the round and were joined by Digital Currency Group, VKAV, and others.

- Mallard Bay, a Baton Rouge, La.-based online marketplace for booking guided hunting and fishing trips, raised $4.6 million in Series A funding. Soul Venture Partners led the round and was joined by Acadian Capital Ventures and others. 

PRIVATE EQUITY

- Gannett Fleming, a portfolio company of OceanSound Partners, acquired DEC, a Houston, Texas-based provider of water and transportation engineering services. Financial terms were not disclosed.

- GTCR acquired Cloudbreak Health, a Columbus, Ohio.-based provider of healthcare-focused language interpretation services. Financial terms were not disclosed.

- Sensor Tower, backed by Riverwood Capital, acquired data.ai, a San Francisco-based market intelligence platform. Financial terms were not disclosed. 

EXITS

- Oakley Capital acquired a majority stake in Horizons Optical, a Barcelona, Spain-based provider of medical software used to make spectacle lenses, from Sherpa Capital. Financial terms were not disclosed.

- PAI Partners acquired a majority stake in Beautynova, a Milan, Italy-based hair care platform, from Bluegem. Financial terms were not disclosed.

IPOS

- Astera Labs, a Santa Clara, Calif.-based developer of semiconductor-based solutions for cloud and AI infrastructure, now plans to raise up to $673.2 million in an offering of 19.8 million shares priced between $32 and $34 on the Nasdaq. The company posted $116 million in revenue for the year ending December 31, 2023. Sutter Hill Ventures and Fidelity Management and Research back the firm

FUNDS + FUNDS OF FUNDS

- Comvest Partners, a West Palm Beach, Fla.-based private equity and credit investment firm, raised $881 million for its sixth private equity fund focused on consumer, healthcare services, infrastructure and field services, and professional and managed services companies. 

- Ballistic Ventures, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm, raised $360 million for its second fund focused on cybersecurity companies. 

PEOPLE

- Genstar Capital, a San Francisco-based private equity firm, promoted Matt McCabe and Dominic Martellaro to director.

- Science Inc., a Santa Monica, Calif.-based venture capital firm, promoted Priscilla Guevara to general partner. 

- Visionaries Club, a London, U.K. and Berlin, Germany-based venture capital fund, promoted Bobby Jäckle to partner.