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ABOUT USVP
U.S. Venture Partners (USVP) has helped build great companies for three decades. Since its inception in 1981, USVP has invested
over $2.7 billion in about 450 companies. Throughout, USVP's partners have worked diligently and consistently with early-stage
companies, many of which have become industry leaders.
The USVP team consists of accomplished venture investors, former CEOs, senior executives and technology company founders, who span
four generations of high-technology venture investing. This engenders a perspective on business cycles, "hot" market trends,
technology evolution and revolution that is not present among all early-stage investors. Together, we have more than 300 years of
operating experience and nearly 200 years of investment expertise. Founding partner Bill Bowes, who alone has 50 years of venture
investment experience, was also the founder of Amgen, a $70 billion pharmaceutical company, as far back as 1980.
The majority of our investment activities fall into three categories: information technology, life science and technologies for
adapting to or mitigating climate change. Areas of current focus include energy-related products and services, semiconductors,
Web-enabled services for businesses and consumers, storage, wireless communication, sustainable agriculture, biomedical devices
and new drugs with profound social benefits.
We invest at a steady pace even during periods when technology investing is out of favor. We do so because we take a long view
and expect most of our companies to take five years or more to become established and self-sustaining. The immediate economic
environment at a company's beginning is not usually relevant to its ultimate success or value. This approach resulted in 22 new
deals in 2005, for example, 15 of which were first-round investments. USVP invested in a similar number of start-ups in 2006 (14),
2007 (13), and 2008 (11). Seventy-five USVP companies have achieved IPO, as of the end of 2009. Many others have realized positive
merger outcomes.
EXPERTISE UNMATCHED
USVP's track record of helping to build significant companies from the embryonic stage began in the early 1980s with investments
in companies such as Sun Microsystems and AMCC, both of which continue to be market leaders supplying computer systems and VLSI
circuits respectively.
The firm's deep industry expertise, technical strengths, team approach, network of outstanding people, and access to capital from
"blue chip" limited partners have made a positive impact on hundreds of information technology and life sciences companies. Our
portfolios have included investments in data communications leaders Xylan (acquired by Alcatel), Crescendo (acquired by Cisco),
and StrataCom (acquired by Cisco). USVP invested in Checkpoint Software, a leading provider of firewalls and virtual private
networks, which went public in 1996. USVP was the initial investor in Nuance, a leader in the growing speech technology
marketplace that later went public in 2000. More recently USVP invested in Monta Vista Software, a global provider of embedded
Linux operating systems and in Leadis, a fabless chip company developing integrated circuits for cellular handsets. Both companies
are poised for market leadership in rapidly growing segments. These are just a few of the USVP success stories.
It is too early to say which of the companies USVP has funded in the 21st century will become the next market leaders, dominant
competitors and great technology investments. However, we are confident that, with the quality teams we have backed and the large
markets they are addressing, these great companies are in the USVP portfolio mix.
We are now investing our tenth fund, which represents the continued confidence of our limited partners in our ability to help
build valuable companies. We believe the current USVP portfolios are very strong and reflect our sustained investment activity
throughout the ups and downs of the technology business cycle. With almost 100 active companies in the USVP portfolios, we expect
the firm to play a seminal role in the progress of information technology and life science industries well into the future.
