DCM Ventures Snags $770M, and Three Security Firms Raise Millions
[Updated 7/15/16, 1:24 pm. See below.] This year could be the richest fundraising period for venture capital firms since 2000, according to Thomson Reuters figures so far. Menlo, Park, CA-based DCM Ventures did its bit this week to keep up the pace.
DCM, a 20-year-old venture capital firm whose interests straddle the United States and Asia, announced Thursday that its limited partners have committed $ 770 million that it will spread over three of its funds, according to a Venture Beat story DCM posted on its news page.
The bulk of the new capital, $ 500 million, will go to DCM’s eighth flagship fund, which will invest in early stage companies in the U.S., China, and Japan. Another $ 170 million will support late-stage companies, including some of its portfolio companies with growth potential.
With the remaining $ 100 million, DCM is creating the second of what it calls its A-Funds, to invest in higher-risk early stage companies in sectors including mobile, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, messaging, and drones.
DCM, founded in 1996, has offices in Beijing and Tokyo in addition to its Silicon Valley headquarters. With $ 3 billion under management by the venture firm, IPOs and acquisitions of its portfolio companies have yielded $ 1.5 billion over the past three years, Reuters reported. Those exits included Cisco’s acquisition of Cupertino, CA-based 1 Mainstream, a cloud-based video platform, in October 2015.
DCM’s limited partners include not only pension funds, but also major Internet companies in Asia, including Tencent and Baidu, according to Reuters.
A trio of Bay Area security companies also roped in some cash this week.
San Francisco-based Bay Dynamics raised $ 23 million in a Series B financing round led by Carrick Capital Partners, which was joined by prior investor Comcast Ventures, the venture capital arm of Comcast. In 2014, Comcast Ventures led Bay Dynamics’ $ 8 million Series A financing round.
Bay Dynamics plans to expand the market for its automated cybersecurity risk analytics system, which the company says is now in use by hundreds of businesses. The risk analytics service detects threats and helps clients reduce their exposure to attacks, the company says.
Part of that effort is to educate staffers about cyber risks that could put company data or operations in jeopardy, Bay Dynamics says. It has that strategy in common with Appthority, another San Francisco security company that announced the expansion of a funding round this week. [This paragraph and the next have been modified to provide further details, supplied by the company, about the timing of the investments in the Series B fundraising round.]
Appthority, which specializes in vetting the risks connected with mobile apps, added $ 7 million to its Series B fundraising round, bringing the total to $ 17 million. In January, the company said it had raised an initial $ 10 million from U.S. Venture Partners and Venrock, along with new investors Blue Coat Systems and Knollwood Investment Advisory. This week, Appthority announced the closing of the $ 7 million addition to the Series B round, led by Trident Capital Cybersecurity and joined by U.S. Venture Partners, Venrock, Blue Coat Systems and Knollwood Investment Advisory.
Appthority offers the employees of its clients the chance to see security ratings of apps they want to use—before the apps are ever downloaded to a personal device the staffer uses for work purposes. The company also scans the mobile devices of employees and flags risky ones that should be scrapped. It plans to use its new capital to beef up marketing efforts and expand the features of its service.
The third security company of this week’s fundraising trio is Indegy, which concentrates on protecting industrial operations in fields including energy and water utilities, manufacturing, and pharmaceuticals.
Indegy, based in Tel Aviv with an office in Palo Alto, CA, raised $ 12 million in a Series A fundraising round led by Vertex Ventures Israel. Also participating were Aspect Ventures, SBI Holdings of Japan, and prior investors Magma Venture Partners and Shlomo Kramer, a co-founder of Check Point Software and investor in companies including Palo Alto Networks.
Indegy monitors the devices that control industrial equipment and operations for signs of trouble.
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