SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwire - September 8, 2010) - Industry Ventures LLC, a leading investment firm for venture capital, today announced the appointment of Victor Hwang as Managing Director and the promotion of Will Quist to Managing Director. In addition, the firm announced the promotion of Dan Stevens to Associate. All three investment professionals focus on helping venture capital investors generate liquidity from existing investments.
Hwang is a 20-year veteran of the venture community who brings deep experience in technology investing, investment banking and operations experience. Having worked as a Venture Partner at Industry Ventures for more than a year, Hwang led the firm's investments in Alibaba Group, the firm's first investment in a Chinese company, and Epocrates, which recently filed a registration statement for an initial public offering. Victor is also a Limited Partner in two of Industry Venture's previous secondary funds.
Hwang formerly was Founder and Managing Partner of Agile Capital Partners, focusing on opportunistic investments in growth companies where he completed successful exits on StepUp Commerce (sold to Intuit) and Simple Star (sold to Sonic Solutions). Previous to this, Hwang was an early, pre-IPO member of Internet Capital Group, where he served as CEO and Vice Chairman of ICG Asia in Hong Kong. Hwang began his career as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs & Co, where he completed over twenty financings and strategic assignments for a broad range of technology companies that raised over $1.5 billion in capital, including leading the initial public offerings for eBay and Yahoo!. Hwang received his B.A. from Stanford University and his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was an Arjay Miller scholar.
"Victor's knowledge, experience and contacts within the financial community and among entrepreneurs -- both here and in Asia -- are highly accretive to our team. He is a tremendous asset to the firm particularly as we increase our focus on secondary direct transactions in Internet and software investment and we look toward Asia for future investment opportunities," said Industry Ventures Founder and Managing Director Hans Swildens. "Will's ongoing contributions to the firm's direction and growth have enabled us to become a trusted partner in the venture community. With the addition of Victor and the promotions of Will and Dan, we are strengthening our investment team to take advantage of inefficiencies in the asset class and for continued growth of the firm."
"Hans and his team truly are visionaries when it comes to venture investing and specifically to the increased role of secondary investments in the venture ecosystem. Industry Ventures is unique in its philosophy and approach and I can't imagine a better opportunity or fit for me," said Hwang.
In his new role as Managing Director, Quist will focus on originating, valuing and executing secondary direct investments and special purpose vehicles for Industry Ventures. In his time at the firm, Will has continually increased his contribution to the team and has led transactions including an investment in eBags, where he serves as a Board Observer. Will was previously a Vice President and Associate at the firm. Prior to joining Industry Ventures in 2007, Quist served as an Investment Banking Analyst with Banc of America Securities, working on private capital raises with an emphasis on growth capital in the media, technology and healthcare sectors. He is a former editor for the AlwaysOn Network, where he covered technology startups and was responsible for selecting the AO 100, a list of the 100 most innovative private companies. Quist is also an advisor to Feeva Technology, Inc., a provider of a targeted online advertising platform. He earned a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley.
Prior to joining Industry Ventures, Stevens worked as an Analyst at Cogent Partners, a secondary market intermediary. At Cogent, Dan worked on numerous secondary market transactions and was involved in valuation analysis and transaction marketing. Dan earned a B.A. in Economics and Spanish from Duke University and is a Level II candidate in the CFA program.
About Industry Ventures LLC
Industry Ventures is a leading investment firm that capitalizes on inefficiencies within venture capital and technology growth equity. The firm invests in secondary and primary opportunities, including purchasing direct portfolios, secondary direct investments, limited partnership interests and other special situations. Founded in 2000, the firm manages a total of $450 million of institutional capital. Headquartered in San Francisco with an office in Washington, D.C., the firm owns interests in over 100 growth stage companies and more than 100 venture capital limited partnerships. The Industry Ventures' Secondary team works with investors seeking near-term liquidity from existing direct and partnership investments. The Industry Partnership Holdings team focuses on secondary purchases of unfunded limited partnership interests and primary commitments to smaller venture capital and technology growth equity funds. The firm has invested directly or via partnerships in some of the most successful venture-backed businesses, such as Ancestry.com (IPO), Broadsoft (IPO), Cambridge Display (acquired by Sumitomo), Facebook, Isilon (IPO), JaJah (acquired by Telefonica), Pure Digital (acquired by Cisco), Sourcefire (IPO), Speedera Networks (acquired by Akamai) and Twitter. For more information, please visit www.industryventures.com.
Contact Information:
Media Contact:
Kim Hughes
The Blueshirt Group (for Industry Ventures)
415-516-6187