BOULDER, Colo., July 30, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Techstars, the
worldwide network that helps entrepreneurs succeed, today announced
a $42M investment led by SVB
Financial Group, the holding company of Silicon Valley Bank, with
additional participation from existing investors including Foundry
Group. This funding will accelerate Techstars' growth to help more
entrepreneurs succeed through seed-stage accelerators, global
startup ecosystem activations, corporate innovation, and
entrepreneur-focused events.
Techstars consists of both an investment management business
with $500 million in assets under
management as well as an operating business that is rapidly
approaching $100 million in annual
revenue.
Techstars' investment activity now includes 49 accelerator
programs in 35 cities across 16 countries, deploying $80 million into nearly 500 startups on an annual
basis. The Techstars portfolio of 1,900 companies currently
attracts an annual $2 billion in
downstream investment from the venture capital industry. Techstars
also invests in global emerging startup communities by operating
approximately 1,000 annual Techstars Startup Weekend events in
600 cities across 120 countries to help surface and support future
high growth companies.
"Being the largest and most active global seed investor requires
a mindset and approach that is completely distinct from traditional
venture capital," said Techstars Co-CEO David Cohen. "Techstars has created and is
scaling an entirely new type of early-stage private equity
asset."
Through its operating activities, Techstars partners with nearly
100 corporations to provide corporate innovation solutions.
Techstars is also an active partner with cities such as Buffalo
(NY), Louisville (KY), and
Turin (Italy) to further develop their startup
communities.
In addition to the financing, John
China, President of SVB Capital, has joined Techstars' Board
of Directors. "The Techstars team is well-positioned to keep
developing its platform and enable and support founders, investors
and startup ecosystems around the globe," said China. "SVB has a
long history working with Techstars and its portfolio companies and
we're enthusiastic about the opportunity to further our
relationship and make a bigger positive impact on the innovation
economy."
About Techstars
Techstars is the worldwide network that helps entrepreneurs
succeed. Techstars enables founders to connect with entrepreneurs,
experts, mentors, alumni, investors, community leaders, and
corporations to grow their companies. Techstars accelerator alumni
including Classpass, DataRobot, DigitalOcean, Outreach, Pillpack,
Remitly, SalesLoft, SendGrid, and
Zipline have a current market cap of more than $22 billion. Founded in 2006 by co-founders and
co-CEOs David Cohen and David Brown, tech entrepreneur and venture
capitalist Brad Feld, and the
current Governor of Colorado,
Jared Polis, Techstars is known for
developing the principle of #givefirst, a core value of giving to
and helping others without a direct expectation of a transactional
return. Headquartered in Boulder,
Colorado, Techstars employs more than 280 people across 20
countries. Learn more at www.techstars.com.
About SVB Financial Group
For more than 35 years, SVB Financial Group (NASDAQ: SIVB) and
its subsidiaries have helped innovative companies and their
investors move bold ideas forward, fast. SVB Financial Group's
businesses, including Silicon Valley Bank, offer commercial,
private and investment banking, asset management, private wealth
management, brokerage, and investment services and funds management
services to companies in the technology, life science and
healthcare, private equity and venture capital, and premium wine
industries. Headquartered in Santa Clara,
California, SVB Financial Group operates in centers of
innovation around the world. Learn more at www.svb.com.
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SOURCE Techstars