Atlas Venture
Encyclopedia
Atlas Venture is an international early-stage venture capital
firm that invests in communications
, information technology
, and life sciences
companies. From the late 1990s through the mid-2000s the firm was leading investor in startup companies in both the U.S.
and Europe
. Atlas is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts
.
Since its inception in 1980, Atlas has invested in over 350 companies in more than 16 different countries. Among the firm's most notable investments are DailyMotion
, eGroups
, Business Objects
, DisplayLink
, Gotuit
, Grockit
, Helicos Biosciences
, Icera
, Marathon Technologies
, Moreover Technologies
, Phase Forward, PicoChip
, Ready2shop.com
, Seatwave
, Signature BioScience
, Vermeer Technologies and Zoopla
.
The firm has raised over $2.8 billion of investor commitments across its eight venture capital funds. After growing steadily in the 1990s, the firm raised $750 million for its 2000-vintage fifth fund. Following the collapse of the dot-com bubble
, the firm found it difficult to raise similar pools of capital raising $600 million and $385 million for its sixth and seventh funds in 2001 and 2006 respectively. The firm is currently investing from its eighth fund which closed in early 2009 with $283 million of capital. This was significantly less than Atlas had indicated it would target for its fundraising.
As a result of the firm's smaller fund sizes, Atlas has significantly consolidated its investment operations. At its peak, the firm had offices on the West Coast as well as in Europe. Today, the firm operates from a single office in Cambridge, Massachusetts
.
Venture capital
Venture capital is financial capital provided to early-stage, high-potential, high risk, growth startup companies. The venture capital fund makes money by owning equity in the companies it invests in, which usually have a novel technology or business model in high technology industries, such as...
firm that invests in communications
Telecommunication
Telecommunication is the transmission of information over significant distances to communicate. In earlier times, telecommunications involved the use of visual signals, such as beacons, smoke signals, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, and optical heliographs, or audio messages via coded...
, information technology
Information technology
Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...
, and life sciences
Life sciences
The life sciences comprise the fields of science that involve the scientific study of living organisms, like plants, animals, and human beings. While biology remains the centerpiece of the life sciences, technological advances in molecular biology and biotechnology have led to a burgeoning of...
companies. From the late 1990s through the mid-2000s the firm was leading investor in startup companies in both the U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. Atlas is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
.
Since its inception in 1980, Atlas has invested in over 350 companies in more than 16 different countries. Among the firm's most notable investments are DailyMotion
Dailymotion
Dailymotion is a video sharing service website, headquartered in the 18th arrondissement, Paris, France. According to Comscore, Dailymotion is the second largest video site in the world after YouTube....
, eGroups
EGroups
eGroups.com was an email list management web site. The site allowed users to create their own mailing lists and allowed others to sign up for membership on the list. The web site provided archives of the messages as well as list management functionality. Each group also had a shared calendar, file...
, Business Objects
Business Objects (company)
SAP Business Objects is a French enterprise software company, specializing in business intelligence . Since 2007, it has been a part of SAP AG. The company claimed more than 46,000 customers worldwide in its final earnings release...
, DisplayLink
DisplayLink
DisplayLink is a semiconductor and software startup company. DisplayLink USB graphics technology is designed to connect computers and displays using USB and Wireless USB, allowing multiple displays to be connected to a single PC...
, Gotuit
Gotuit
Gotuit is a developer of video metadata technology. Gotuit enables users to add metadata to sections of videos that are uploaded to their site. Digitalsmiths acquired Gotuit on 23 November, 2010....
, Grockit
Grockit
Grockit is an online social learning game company. Grockit prepares students for the SAT, ACT, GMAT, LSAT and GRE standardized exams. Students can take practice tests while collaborating online with other users. Grockit was founded in 2006 by Farbood Nivi...
, Helicos Biosciences
Helicos Biosciences
Helicos BioSciences Corporation, is a publicly-traded life science company headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts focused on genetic analysis technologies for the research, drug discovery and diagnostic markets. The firm's Helicos Genetic Analysis Platform was the first DNA-sequencing...
, Icera
Icera
Icera Inc. is a fabless semiconductor company headquartered in Bristol, United Kingdom. Icera develops soft modem chipsets for the mobile device market, including mobile broadband datacards, USB sticks, and embedded modems for smartphones, laptops, netbooks, tablets, e-books and other mobile...
, Marathon Technologies
Marathon Technologies
Marathon Technologies Corp. was founded by senior executives and engineers responsible for developing Digital Equipment Corporation's VAXft fault-tolerant systems...
, Moreover Technologies
Moreover Technologies
Moreover Technologies is a provider of business intelligence and news aggregation products for enterprises, also offering free news feeds for consumers...
, Phase Forward, PicoChip
PicoChip
Picochip is a venture-backed fabless semiconductor company based in Bath, England, founded in 2000.The company is active in two areas, with two distinct product families.-Multi-core DSP:...
, Ready2shop.com
Ready2shop.com
Ready2shop.com was a British dot-com fashion advice business co-founded in November 1999 by fashion gurus Trinny Woodall and Susannah Constantine. Backed by venture capital from J.H. Whitney & Co. and Atlas Venture, the business ceased trading after running out of funding following major cuts in...
, Seatwave
Seatwave
Seatwave is an online ticket exchange service operating in the European market. It was founded by Joe Cohen in 2006 with the aim of offering consumers a safe and transparent way to buy and sell tickets to live events including music, theatre and sport....
, Signature BioScience
Signature BioScience
Signature BioScience Inc. was the first biotechnology company based in San Francisco. It was formed in 1998 but closed in 2003 due to lack of funding. Before Signature was dissolved, it had just completed Phase II trials on Digitoxin, which the company was pursuing as an anti-cancer compound...
, Vermeer Technologies and Zoopla
Zoopla
Zoopla is a property and house prices website that provides information such as sold house prices and current value estimates for all 27 million residential properties in the UK.-Product features:...
.
The firm has raised over $2.8 billion of investor commitments across its eight venture capital funds. After growing steadily in the 1990s, the firm raised $750 million for its 2000-vintage fifth fund. Following the collapse of the dot-com bubble
Dot-com bubble
The dot-com bubble was a speculative bubble covering roughly 1995–2000 during which stock markets in industrialized nations saw their equity value rise rapidly from growth in the more...
, the firm found it difficult to raise similar pools of capital raising $600 million and $385 million for its sixth and seventh funds in 2001 and 2006 respectively. The firm is currently investing from its eighth fund which closed in early 2009 with $283 million of capital. This was significantly less than Atlas had indicated it would target for its fundraising.
As a result of the firm's smaller fund sizes, Atlas has significantly consolidated its investment operations. At its peak, the firm had offices on the West Coast as well as in Europe. Today, the firm operates from a single office in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
.