Clear Ventures Launches New $120 Million Venture Capital Fund

PALO ALTO, CA--(Marketwired - June 01, 2016) -  Clear Ventures™, a new Silicon Valley technology venture capital firm, today launched a new $120 million venture capital fund. Founded by partners Chris Rust and Rajeev Madhavan, the fund's financial backers include institutional pension funds, educational endowments, charitable foundations and iconic technology industry executives with more than $80 billion in assets under management. Clear originally targeted an $80 million raise then increased to $120 million to accommodate demand.

With experience scaling companies from concept to $1 billion-plus in annual revenue, the Clear team is dedicated to working with bold teams from the earliest stages of company creation to market leadership. The fund's primary investment focus is on business technology and services, often running in the cloud, consumed on mobile and using data analytics as a strategic asset. Large portions of the global technology industry will yield to creative destruction from re-imagining the modern data stack, from IoT, and from new levels of operational intelligence enabled by machine learning and predictive analytics.

Clear launches with an active portfolio that includes Cyphort, Falcon Computing, Paysa, Reflektion, Robin Systems, Swift Navigation and Vera Security. The partners' active venture investments prior to Clear include seed/early rounds in or advisors to FusionOps, GoEuro, Lumoid, Toast, ZeroStack and Zerto. These active partnerships address high-growth opportunities such as cloud/data center infrastructure, cloud-managed IT, customized computing, enterprise productivity, geo-location services, information and network security, marketplaces, meta-search, mobile, predictive commerce, and SaaS.

Rajeev and Chris both bring personal entrepreneurial experience to the fund. Rajeev was a co-founder of LogicVision (IPO), Ambit (acquired by Cadence), and Magma Design Automation (IPO). Rajeev served as Magma's Chief Executive Officer through its IPO and entire tenure as a public company, during which time Magma made seminal contributions to the creation of the modern smartphone. Chris was a co-founder of broadband Internet pioneer Roadrunner, now known as Time Warner Cable Internet, which grew to 13 million subscribers.

Since 1998, Chris, a former partner at Sequoia Capital and USVP, and Rajeev, an experienced independent venture capital investor, have invested in more than 50 companies.

• In 90 percent of these ventures they were a founding investor.
• 85 percent had first-time CEOs.
• 75 percent had at least one immigrant founder.
• The first 34 VC exits have produced $24 billion of market capitalization at exit and $52 billion of peak market capitalization from 8 IPOs, 24 acquisitions, and 2 wind-downs.

The Clear team's notable venture capital exits span many technology innovation cycles and includes seed/early-stage investments in Apigee (IPO), GoPro (IPO), Virident (acquired by Western Digital), Yume (IPO). Magma (IPO), Groupon (IPO), Dune (acquired by Broadcom), Mellanox (IPO), LVL7 (acquired by Broadcom), Syndesis (acquired by Subex Azure), Telera (acquired by Alcatel), VxTel (acquired by Intel), LogicVision (IPO), Ambit (acquired by Cadence), SwitchOn (acquired by PMC Sierra), Avanex (IPO), and Abrizio (acquired by PMC Sierra).

"As career startup veterans, we understand the intense team effort and shared sense of purpose required to build mighty companies from humble beginnings," said Rajeev Madhavan, Founder and General Partner of Clear Ventures. "We founded Clear to help ambitious startup teams navigate the complex entrepreneurial journey from concept to significant shareholder value creation, working in a supportive and respectful manner as full lifecycle partners."

"We are fortunate to have worked with many exceptional mentors and colleagues over the years to help bring game-changing innovations to market, on both sides of the table -- as startup founders and technology venture investors. Clear is our next logical step," said Chris Rust, Founder and General Partner of Clear Ventures. "We are grateful to those that have helped us build a strong foundation. We look forward to providing difference-making access to customers, talent and insight to tomorrow's technology leaders."

"Clear has been invaluable to us at every stage of our growth. They led our seed round and actively helped put together our Series A," said Premal Buch, Chief Executive Officer of Robin Systems. "As we started engaging with customers, they connected us to their vast network of industry executives, which led to our lighthouse accounts. Their collaborative and team-oriented approach comes from having founded and funded startups across market cycles, with many achieving public companies and successful exits. They are a calm and steady source of insightful advice and mentoring, always on our side, as we grapple with the challenges of building a successful company."

"Both Chris Rust and Rajeev Madhavan were involved in different capacities during the earliest days of Mellanox and contributed to our success," said Eyal Waldman, CEO of Mellanox. "Both understood the far-reaching implications of the technology we were creating and their support helped turn that vision into reality. Mellanox continues to grow and make the world a better place to this day."

About Clear

With $120 million of capital from a world-class investor base, Clear is a Silicon Valley venture capital firm that is purpose-built to help startup teams win in business technology and services. Founded by veteran company builders and venture investors Chris Rust and Rajeev Madhavan, formerly of Sequoia Capital and USVP and founders of four successful companies, Clear provides early capital, connections, and company-building insights to bold startup teams so their ideas can grow into market-leading companies. Visit Clear online at www.clear.ventures.

CLEAR™, CLEAR VENTURES™, CLEAR VENTURE PARTNERS™, CLEARVP™, CLEAR VENTURE MANAGEMENT™, CLEAR INDUSTRY PARTNERS™, and the logos associated therewith are trademarks of Clear Venture Management LLC and are protected by trademark laws of the United States and other countries. All other product and company names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.