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BA Venture Partners Finances 31 Deals; Drives 5 Major Exits in 2004
Firm Funds 11 New Companies in IT and Life Sciences Industries Bullish 2005 Outlook
Foster City, Calif., January 10, 2004-BA Venture Partners (BAVP), a venture capital partnership that provides development capital to accelerate market traction for information technology and life sciences companies, today announced it invested $120 million in 31 companies in 2004. Of the 31 deals, more than half were investments in early-stage companies. Eleven of the deals represented new investments for BAVP. The other deals were additional funding for companies in which BAVP made a prior initial investment. The $120 million BAVP invested in 2004 is a 26% increase from its 2003 invested dollars of $95M. New investments in 2004 include: Hardware
Software
Life Sciences
Liquidity Events BA Venture Partners drove five liquidity events in 2004, including two acquisitions and three initial public offerings:
"BAVP works in partnership with our portfolio entrepreneurs and develops market traction for our companies," said Kate Mitchell, managing director at BAVP. "Market traction means supporting the company with its intellectual property, manufacturing, financing, sales, regulatory and distribution challenges so that they are better positioned to become market leaders." Rory O'Driscoll, managing director and fellow BAVP investor added, "We sow the seeds for the successful commercialization of innovative IT and life sciences technologies. These liquidity events represent the culmination of the market traction our portfolio companies achieve and BA Venture Partners' role as the entrepreneurs' partners. We are extremely proud of these companies." 2005 Outlook: Consumer Market is Hot BA Venture Partners foresees a positive investment climate in 2005 and expects its investment level to at least equal or exceed that of 2004. The consumer electronics marketplace continues to attract BAVP. Additionally, the firm is actively seeking investments in early-or development-stage companies within various market segments of information technology and the life sciences, including hardware, software, biotechnology, specialty pharmaceuticals and medical devices. "Unlike other venture capitalists that place the vast majority of their capital in enterprise technology and only a small portion in consumer electronics, BAVP believes the consumer segment represents a significant upside opportunity," said Jim Jones, managing director. "We have invested in the consumer space for several years. In 2004, the IPO of Monolithic Power Systems and our investments in MBlox and Sorrent made great market traction. With BAVP's domain expertise in emerging sectors such as those leveraging wireless technology and semiconductors for consumer electronics, we are well positioned to add value, both financially and strategically, to promising entrepreneurs in the consumer market." About BA Venture Partners BA Venture Partners is a venture capital partnership that provides development capital to accelerate market traction for information technology and life sciences companies. With more than $750 million of capital under management, BAVP is dedicated to helping companies commercialize new information and life sciences technologies and accelerate portfolio companies' growth and market leadership. Based in Foster City, California, BAVP's team of investment professionals collectively offers decades of technology and venture industry experience to early and development stage companies in hardware, consumer, software, biotechnology and medical devices. Recent liquidity events include Citrix's acquisition of Net6; Microsoft's acquisition of PlaceWare; Checkpoint's acquisition of Zone Labs; Silicon Labs' acquisition of Cygnal; and the initial public offerings of Monolithic Power Systems, VNUS, Acusphere and Dynavax. For more information, visit www.baventurepartners.com. # # #
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