History

Now in our 11th year together, the New Venture Partners team is itself a spin-out, evolving from its origins as the Lucent Technologies/Bell Labs New Ventures Group into an independent firm that works closely with the world’s most prestigious R&D organizations.

Milestones

• January 1997: New Ventures Group formed as operating unit of Lucent Technologies.
• 1997 – 2001: Team creates and finances 28 companies based on Bell Labs’ technologies, bringing in more than 50 leading venture capital firms and corporate strategic partners as co-investors who provide $350 million of additional equity capital to portfolio companies.
• Spring 2001: The concept of corporate spin-outs and open innovation has firmly taken hold. The New Venture Partners team is rated #1 globally by an Ernst & Young Benchmarking Study for internal corporate venture creation, and becomes the subject of two Harvard Business School case studies.
• December 2001: New Ventures Partners is formed and the core team leaves Lucent. Coller Capital, the leading global investor in private equity secondaries, acquires 80 per cent of Lucent's equity stake in the New Ventures Group portfolio, the portfolio we created while at Lucent.
• June 2002: Celiant, Inc., a Bell Labs’ spin-out majority owned by New Venture Partners, is acquired by Andrew Corp. in the largest venture-backed company exit of the year.
• March 2003: New Venture Partners raises its second fund, is named an exclusive venture partner for British Telecom, and is charged with creating new ventures from its R&D, professional and computing services unit, BTExact. Under this agreement, New Venture Partners has completed seven spin-outs to date from BT.
• October 2004: New Venture Partners finalizes an exclusive relationship with Philips. The firm counts some of the world’s most prestigious R&D organizations as its partners.
• March 2005: The European Wall Street Journal describes the New Venture Partners’ spin-out model as ‘unique’ and a ‘blueprint’ for corporate technology venturing. First incubation project begins at Philips.
• February 2006: Flarion, a Bell Labs spin-out, with New Venture Partners remaining one of its largest shareholders, is acquired by Qualcomm in the second-largest venture-backed company exit of the year.
• March 2006: New Venture Partners closes NV Partners IV, a $300 million fund focused on global corporate spin-outs. The firm now has over $700 million under management.
• April 2007: New Venture Partners establishes its fourth regional office in San Mateo, CA.