Uncork Capital

Uncork Capital is a venture capital firm in Palo Alto, California founded by Jeff Clavier. Considered one of the most active established seed funds in Silicon Valley,[1] it has invested in companies such as Postmates, Eventbrite, Fitbit, SendGrid, and Survata.[2]

Uncork Capital
TypePrivate
IndustryVenture Capital
Founded2004
HeadquartersPalo Alto
Key people
Jeff Clavier, Founder
ProductsInvestments
Websitewww.uncorkcapital.com

History

The firm was founded in 2004 by angel investor Jeff Clavier when he transitioned his portfolio into a formal venture firm.[3] Partners include Andy McLoughlin, formerly of Huddle, and Stephanie Palmeri.[4] As of 2014, the firm had invested in over 150 early stage start-ups.[5]

In 2017, the firm changed its name from SoftTech VC to Uncork Capital.[6]

Investments

The firm primarily invests in e-commerce, mobile services, and SaaS (software as a service) ventures.[7] With a focus on seed-stage and Series A funding, the firm generally aims to secure between 7-10% ownership of the companies it invests in.[8][9]

The firm's first fund raised less than $1 million,[10] while the second fund raised $15 million in 2007, including exits in Milo, Tapulous and Goodrec. In 2012, Fund III oversubscribed at $55 million,[11] and in 2014 they closed their fourth fund at $85 million, bringing their capital under management to $155 million.[7][12] In 2016, the firm raised $100 million for SoftTechVC V and $50 million for a breakout fund.[9]

Notable investments have included Eventbrite, Fitbit, Postmates, SendGrid, Survata, Gnip, BrightRoll, Vidyard and LiveRamp.[2][9]

[25]

References
  1. Rampton, John (22 February 2017). "Meet the Angels: Silicon Valley's Most Well-Known Investors of 2016". Business Insider. Retrieved 6 May 2018.
  2. "Survata Announces $6 Million in Series A Funding | Survata Blog". www.survata.com. Retrieved 2015-07-20.
  3. Schonfeld, Erick (26 January 2012). "Jeff Clavier's SoftTech VC Raises $55 Million For Fund III". TechCrunch.
  4. Loizos, Connie (19 January 2016). "SoftTech VC Promotes Two To Partner As It Seeks Out Fresh $130M". TechCrunch. Retrieved 11 June 2018.
  5. Volpicelli, Anna (1 August 2014). "The 20 Hottest Bay Area Fintech Investors and 20 Bay Area Fintech Startups To Keep Your Eye On". Huffington Post. Retrieved 6 May 2018.
  6. "SoftTech VC rebrands as Uncork Capital". Pitchbook. 8 November 2017. Retrieved 6 May 2018.
  7. Volpicelli, Anna (1 August 2014). "Meet The Bay Area's Top Female Venture Capitalists". 7x7. Retrieved 6 May 2018.
  8. Garland, Russ (27 June 2014). "SoftTech VC Boosts Its Reserves With $85 Million Fourth Fund". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 11 June 2018.
  9. Loizos, Connie (8 June 2016). "SoftTech VC goes big, raising $150 million across two new funds". TechCrunch. Retrieved 11 June 2018.
  10. Taylor, Colleen (26 January 2012). "How Jeff Clavier will spend SoftTech's biggest VC fund yet". GigaOM.
  11. Geron, Tomio (26 January 2012). "SoftTech VC Closes Oversubscribed $55 Million Third Fund". Forbes.
  12. "The Daily Startup: SoftTech VC Aims at $75M for Fund IV". Wall Street Journal. 12 July 2013.
  13. Perez, Sarah (February 21, 2019). "About.me acquired by mobile first small business startup Broadly". TechCrunch. Retrieved February 5, 2021.
  14. Heather, Lunden, Brian, Ingrid (October 19, 2017). "Swedish lock giant Assa Abloy acquires lock maker August Home". TechCrunch. Retrieved February 5, 2021.
  15. Ha, Anthony (July 12, 2017). "Bitly sells a majority stake to Spectrum Equity for $63M". TechCrunch. Retrieved February 5, 2021.
  16. Kriel, Collen (March 30, 2015). "IBM acquires technology from curated search engine Blekko to Bolster Watson". Silicon Angle. Retrieved February 5, 2021.
  17. Rodgers, Evan (July 17, 2012). "Paypal acquires Card.io mobile payment service". The Verge. Retrieved February 5, 2021.
  18. Goodwin, Antuan (September 10, 2016). "Ford Mobility to acquire Chariot shuttle service, launch GoBike sharing in San Francisco". CNET. Retrieved February 5, 2021.
  19. Dillet, Romain (August 16, 2016). "Twitch is acquiring popular video game community and software maker Curse". TechCrunch. Retrieved February 5, 2021.
  20. Matney, Lucas (February 1, 2018). "Pokémon GO creator Niantic buys Escher Reality AR startup". TechCrunch. Retrieved February 5, 2021.
  21. Siegler, MG (October 10, 2011). "Facebook acquires Social Q&A Service Freind.ly-Team to work on new things, But service will stay open". TechCrunch. Retrieved February 5, 2021.
  22. Etherington, Darrell (April 15, 2014). "Twitter acquires longtime partner and Social Media Provider Gnip". TechCruch. Retrieved February 5, 2021.
  23. Lunden, Ingrid (May 23, 2019). "Shopify quietly acquired Handshake, an e-commerce platform for B2B whole purchasing". TechCrunch. Retrieved February 5, 2021.
  24. Jackson, Jacob (April 17, 2013). "Intel acquires Mashery for planned services suite". PC World. Retrieved February 5, 2021.
  25. Ha, Anthony (February 11, 2015). "Twitter acquires Niche, a startup that helps advertisers work with Social Media Celebrities". TechCrunch. Retrieved February 5, 2021.


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