Burr, Egan, Deleage & Co. (BEDCO) was a

venture capital Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which ha ...

firm which focused on investments in information technology, communications, and healthcare/biotechnology companies. BEDCO was one of the first venture capital firm to set up a bi-coastal operation with a presence in both Boston, Massachusetts and

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo County ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. The firm was founded in 1979 and dissolved in 1996, with

Alta Partners Alta Partners is a venture capital firm based in San Francisco which invests primarily in biotechnology and life science companies. History The company was founded in 1996 by Dr. Jean Deleage, Ph.D., who was also a founder of the venture capi ...

and

Alta Communications Alta Communications is an American private equity firm primarily working with media and the communication sector. Their equity funds are invested in about 100 companies with a total market capitalization approximately $1.5 billion. Alta Commu ...

assuming management responsibility for certain existing investments. Other successor firms include

Polaris Venture Partners Polaris Partners is a venture capital firm active in the field of healthcare and biotechnology companies. The company has offices in Boston, Massachusetts, New York, NY and San Francisco, California. History Polaris Partners was founded in 1996 ...

and Alta Berkeley.

History

The firm was founded in 1979 by

Craig Burr Craig L. Burr (born 1945) is an early venture capital investor, notable for his role in the founding of two venture capital firms, Burr, Egan, Deleage & Co. (BEDCO) in 1979 and Alta Communications in 1996. Career In 1979 Burr co-founded Burr, Egan ...

William P. Egan William P. Egan is an American venture capitalist. He is the founder and general partner at Alta Communications, a venture capital firm, and Marion Equity Partners, a private equity firm, both based in Boston, Massachusetts. Egan also founded Alta ...

, and Dr. Jean Deleage, Ph.D. Burr and Egan had worked together at the pioneering private equity firm

TA Associates TA Associates, founded in 1968, is one of the early modern-era private equity firms in the United States. The firm leads buyouts and minority recapitalizations of profitable growth companies. TA invests across five industry groups: technology, hea ...

. Deleage had come from Sofinnova Partners, a venture capital firm in France that he had co-founded in 1971. In 1976, Deleage had founded Sofinnova’s US affiliate, based in San Francisco. At its zenith the company managed over $700 million in assets and today is the direct predecessor of four venture capital firms with aggregate capital in excess of $5.7 billion: *

based in

Waltham, Massachusetts Waltham ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, and was an early center for the labor movement as well as a major contributor to the American Industrial Revolution. The original home of the Boston Manufacturing Company, th ...

based in California *

based in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

* Alta Berkeley Capital based in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. Among BEDCO’s most notable investments were

Continental Cablevision MediaOne Group, Inc. (Comcast MO Group, Inc.) was created by US WEST Inc, one of the original Baby Bells Regional Bell Operating Companies, acquisition of Boston-based Continental Cable and combined with its previously acquired Atlanta-based Wom ...

with

H. Irving Grousbeck Harold Irving "Irv" Grousbeck (born July 20, 1934) is an American entrepreneur, professor at Stanford Business School, and co-owner of the National Basketball Association basketball franchise the Boston Celtics. Career Grousbeck is one of the di ...

Qwest Qwest Communications International, Inc. was a United States telecommunications carrier. Qwest provided local service in 14 western and midwestern U.S. states: Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dako ...

with

Philip Anschutz Philip Frederick Anschutz ( ; born December 28, 1939) is an American billionaire businessman who owns or controls companies in a variety of industries, including energy, railroads, real estate, sports, newspapers, movies, theaters, arenas and m ...

Cephalon Cephalon, Inc. was an American biopharmaceutical company co-founded in 1987 by pharmacologist Frank Baldino, Jr., neuroscientist Michael Lewis, and organic chemist James C. Kauer—all three former scientists with the DuPont Company. Baldino s ...

American Superconductor American Superconductor (AMSC) is an American energy technologies company based in Ayer, Massachusetts specializing in the design and manufacture of power systems and superconducting wire. It owns AMSC Windtech in Klagenfurt, Austria. Detroit Ed ...

and

SyQuest Technology SyQuest Technology, Inc. () was an early entrant into the hard disk drive market for personal computers. The company was founded on January 27, 1982 by Syed Iftikar who had been a founder of Seagate, along with Ben Alaimo, Bill Krajewski, Anil N ...

Investment funds

From its founding in 1979 through its dissolution in 1996, BEDCO raised more than a dozen venture capital funds with total investor commitments of approximately $700 million. * 1980 - $12m - Alta Company * 1982 - $60m - Alta II (Late Stage) * 1982 - $10m - Alta Berkeley Venture Partners (Bal. Stage) * 1983 - $18m - Alta Berkeley LP Liquidating Trust (Early Stage) * 1984 - $15.7m - Alta Berkeley Eurofund (Early Stage) * 1986 - $45m - Alta Subordinated Debt (Mezzanine) * 1986 - $32.3m - Alta Berkeley L.P. II (Early Stage) * 1988 - $35m - Alta Communications IV (Late Stage) * 1988 - $124m - Alta IV (Late Stage) * 1988 - $68m - Alta Subordinated Debt II (Mezzanine) * 1992 - $161m - Alta V * 1993 - $96m - Alta Subordinated Debt III (Mezzanine) * 1993 - $27m - Alta Berkeley III (Early Stage)

Successor firms

Polaris Venture Partners

was the first of four successors to BEDCO. One of the contributing factors in the dissolution was the departure of three of BEDCO’s junior partners,

Jon Flint Jonathan A. Flint is a venture capitalist and entrepreneur who co-founded the venture capital firms Polaris Partners and Polaris Founders Capital, as well as the companies Living Proof, and Icelandic Provisions. Early career Flint graduated w ...

Terry McGuire Terry McGuire is a co-founder and general partner of Polaris Partners based in the Boston office. McGuire focuses on life sciences investments. Career Prior to starting Polaris, McGuire spent seven years as a partner at the venture capital firm ...

Steve Arnold (Venture Capitalist) Steve Arnold is a Co-Founder and Partner Emeritus of Polaris Partners, a venture capital firm active in the field of healthcare and biotechnology companies. Education Steve holds a BS with honors from Macalester College and an MA and PhD from t ...

. The three founders, left BEDCO in 1995 and began raising their first independent venture capital fund. Today, Polaris Venture Partners is a venture capital firm specializing in seed and early stage investments particularly in companies engaged in the information technology and life sciences sectors. Polaris is based in

with an additional office in

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

. Since 1995, Polaris has raised five venture capital funds with over $2.6 billion of investor commitments. To date, all of the Polaris funds have been above average performers for their respective vintage years. Polaris Venture Partners V, which was closed in 2006, raised $1 billion of investor commitments.

Alta Partners

was founded by BEDCO co-founder Dr. Jean Deleage, Ph.D., along with

Garrett Gruener Garrett Gruener is an American venture capitalist, most known as the founder of Ask.com and a co-founder of Alta Partners. He was also a candidate for the 2003 California recall special election from the Democratic Party, finishing 28th in a field ...

, a former partner at BEDCO. Today, the firm, which is based in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, invests in

biotechnology Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for products and services. The term ''biotechnology'' was first used b ...

and

life science Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energy t ...

companies and has made over 130 investments since its separation from BEDCO. Since 1996, Alta has raised eight venture capital funds including four funds in its Alta California Funds series, three funds in its Alta Biopharma Partners series and most recently in 2006, Alta raised Alta Partners VIII with $500 million of investor commitments

Alta Communications

was founded by BEDCO co-founders Craig Burr and

. Today the firm, which is based in

(just outside Boston), invests primarily in later-stage opportunities in the traditional

media Media may refer to: Communication * Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass el ...

and

telecommunications Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that fe ...

sectors. Since 1996, Alta Communications has raised four venture capital funds with over $1.4 billion of investor commitments.

Alta Berkeley

Alta Berkeley was formed from BEDCO’s European operations. In 1982, Bryan Wood, who had been working in corporate finance in Britain, partnered with BEDCO to establish a presence in Europe. Today, Alta Berkeley makes early stage investments in technology companies based in Europe and Israel. Alta Berkeley's sixth and most recent fund raised approximately $145 million of investor commitments.

References

A Generation Gap in Venture Capital
*Gupta, Udayan.
Done Deals: Venture Capitalists Tell Their Stories
2000

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20120215082404/http://people.forbes.com/profile/jean-deleage/47837 Jean Deleage(Forbes Profile)
"The Thrill of Defeat"
The Boston Globe, February 2001

Wharton School of Business The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania ( ; also known as Wharton Business School, the Wharton School, Penn Wharton, and Wharton) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in ...

, 2006.

External links

Polaris Venture PartnersAlta Partners (California)

Alta Communications (Boston)

Alta Berkeley (UK)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burr, Egan, Deleage and Co. Financial services companies established in 1979 TA Associates Venture capital firms of the United States Companies based in Boston Life sciences industry Financial services companies disestablished in 1996 American companies established in 1979