U.S. Venture Partners (USVP)

U.S. Venture Partners (USVP) has helped build great companies for three decades. Since its inception in 1981, USVP has invested over $2.7 billion in about 450 companies. Throughout, USVP's partners have worked diligently and consistently with early-stage companies, many of which have become industry leaders.
The USVP team consists of accomplished venture investors, former CEOs, senior executives and technology company founders, who span four generations of high-technology venture investing. This engenders a perspective on business cycles, "hot" market trends, technology evolution and revolution that is not present among all early-stage investors. Together, we have more than 300 years of operating experience and nearly 200 years of investment expertise. Founding partner Bill Bowes, who alone has 50 years of venture investment experience, was also the founder of Amgen, a $70 billion pharmaceutical company, as far back as 1980.
The majority of our investment activities fall into three categories: information technology, life science and technologies for adapting to or mitigating climate change. Areas of current focus include energy-related products and services, semiconductors, Web-enabled services for businesses and consumers, storage, wireless communication, sustainable agriculture, biomedical devices and new drugs with profound social benefits.
We invest at a steady pace even during periods when technology investing is out of favor. We do so because we take a long view and expect most of our companies to take five years or more to become established and self-sustaining. The immediate economic environment at a company's beginning is not usually relevant to its ultimate success or value. This approach resulted in 22 new deals in 2005, for example, 15 of which were first-round investments. USVP invested in a similar number of start-ups in 2006 (14), 2007 (13), and 2008 (11). Seventy-five USVP companies have achieved IPO, as of the end of 2009. Many others have realized positive merger outcomes.