Sapphire Ventures (stylized as SAPPHIRE) is 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 with offices in Menlo Park,

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 ...

Austin Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

, and

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 ...

. The firm is considered one of the world's premier venture capital firms. The firm primarily invests in

Series B A venture round is a type of funding round used for venture capital financing, by which startup companies obtain investment, generally from venture capitalists and other institutional investors. The availability of venture funding is among the ...

through

IPO An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

technology companies A technology company (or tech company) is an electronics-based technological company, including, for example, business relating to digital electronics, software, and internet-related services, such as e-commerce services. Details According to '' ...

, as well as tech-focused early stage venture firms,

seed A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering, along with a food reserve. The formation of the seed is a part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, including the gymnosperm and angiospe ...

, and

Series A A series A round (also known as series A financing or series A investment) is the name typically given to a company's first significant round of venture capital financing. The name refers to the class of preferred stock sold to investors in exchan ...

early-stage sports, media, and entertainment start-ups. Notable Sapphire-backed companies include

23andMe 23andMe Holding Co. is a publicly held personal genomics and biotechnology company based in South San Francisco, California. It is best known for providing a direct-to-consumer genetic testing service in which customers provide a saliva sample t ...

Alteryx Alteryx is an American computer software company based in Irvine, California, with a development center in Broomfield, Colorado. The company's products are used for data science and analytics. The software is designed to make advanced analytic ...

Auth0 Okta, Inc. (formerly Saasure Inc.) is an American identity and access management company based in San Francisco. It provides cloud software that helps companies manage and secure user authentication into applications, and for developers to build ...

Block Block or blocked may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Block programming, the result of a programming strategy in broadcasting * W242BX, a radio station licensed to Greenville, South Carolina, United States known as ''96.3 ...

(

Square In Euclidean geometry, a square is a regular quadrilateral, which means that it has four equal sides and four equal angles (90-degree angles, π/2 radian angles, or right angles). It can also be defined as a rectangle with two equal-length adj ...

Box A box (plural: boxes) is a container used for the storage or transportation of its contents. Most boxes have flat, parallel, rectangular sides. Boxes can be very small (like a matchbox) or very large (like a shipping box for furniture), and can ...

Current Currents, Current or The Current may refer to: Science and technology * Current (fluid), the flow of a liquid or a gas ** Air current, a flow of air ** Ocean current, a current in the ocean *** Rip current, a kind of water current ** Current (stre ...

Degreed Degreed is an education technology company. Degreed is based in San Francisco, CA, with offices in Salt Lake City, UT, New York, London, Brisbane, Australia, and Leiden, The Netherlands. History David Blake, David Wiley, and Eric Sharp fou ...

DocuSign DocuSign, Inc. is an American company headquartered in San Francisco, California, that allows organizations to manage electronic agreements. As part of the DocuSign Agreement Cloud, DocuSign offers eSignature, a way to sign electronically on diff ...

Fitbit Fitbit (stylized as fitbit) is an American consumer electronics and fitness company. It produces wireless-enabled wearable technology, physical fitness monitors and activity trackers such as smartwatches, pedometers and monitors for heart rate ...

IAS IAS may refer to: Science * Institute for Advanced Study, in Princeton, New Jersey, United States * Image Analysis & Stereology, the official journal of the International Society for Stereology & Image Analysis. * Iowa Archeological Society, Uni ...

JumpCloud JumpCloud is an American enterprise software company headquartered in Louisville, Colorado. The company was formally launched in 2013 at TechCrunch Disrupt Battlefield with its announcement of an automated server management tool. JumpCloud’s clo ...

Kaltura Kaltura is a New York-based software company founded in 2006. Kaltura operates in four major markets: Cloud TV (that is, OTT) for operators and media companies, online video platform (OVP) offered mostly to media companies and brands looking ...

Linkedin LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented online service that operates via websites and mobile apps. Launched on May 5, 2003, the platform is primarily used for professional networking and career development, and allows job se ...

, Livongo,

Looker ''Looker'' is a 1981 American science fiction film written and directed by Michael Crichton and starring Albert Finney, Susan Dey, and James Coburn. The film is a suspense/science-fiction piece that comments upon and satirizes media, advertising ...

MuleSoft MuleSoft, LLC. is a software company headquartered in San Francisco, California, that provides integration software for connecting applications, data and devices. Started in 2006, the company's Anypoint Platform of integration products is designe ...

Monday.com Monday.com (styled in lowercase as monday.com) is a cloud-based platform that allows users to create their own applications and project management software. The product was launched in 2014 and in July 2019, the company raised $150 million, ...

Paytm Paytm (acronym for "pay through mobile") is an Indian digital payments and financial services company, based in Noida. It was founded in 2010 by Vijay Shekhar Sharma under One97 Communications. The company offers mobile payment services to co ...

Ping Identity Ping Identity Corporation is an American software company established in 2002 by Andre Durand and Bryan Field-Elliot. It is headquartered in Denver, Colorado, United States with development offices in Vancouver, Vancouver, British Columbia, Tel Av ...

, Sumo Logic, Wise (

TransferWise Wise (formerly TransferWise) is a London-based financial technology company founded by Estonian businessmen Kristo Käärmann and Taavet Hinrikus in January 2011. History Wise was founded by Taavet Hinrikus (Skype's first employee) and fi ...

History

The firm was founded in 1996 as the venture capital arm of multinational software conglomerate

SAP Sap is a fluid transported in xylem cells (vessel elements or tracheids) or phloem sieve tube elements of a plant. These cells transport water and nutrients throughout the plant. Sap is distinct from latex, resin, or cell sap; it is a separa ...

and spun out as an independent company in 2011, rebranding to Sapphire Ventures in 2014. At the time, Sapphire Ventures managed $1.4 billion and had invested in more than 125 companies, with 10 companies going public and 17 getting acquired. In 2012, the firm launched Sapphire Partners, a real-time fund making investments in early-stage venture capital funds based in North America, Europe, and Israel. The strategy also includes direct co-investing alongside Sapphire Partners' GPs. In 2015, Sapphire partnered with technology companies

Cisco Systems Cisco Systems, Inc., commonly known as Cisco, is an American-based multinational corporation, multinational digital communications technology conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develo ...

and

Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational conglomerate corporation and the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe headquartered in Munich with branch offices abroad. The principal divisions of the corporation are ''Industry'', '' ...

to co-host the first industry summit on the

Internet of Things The Internet of things (IoT) describes physical objects (or groups of such objects) with sensors, processing ability, software and other technologies that connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the Internet or other comm ...

, named ''"IoT: Empowering The Enterprise"'' in

San Jose, California San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popul ...

. Sapphire had been an investor in

Control4 Control4 is a provider of automation and networking systems for homes and businesses, offering a personalized and unified smart home system to automate and control connected devices including lighting, audio, video, climate control, intercom, and ...

, an IoT company which completed its initial public offering in 2013. In 2019, the firm launched Sapphire Sport, a fund dedicated to backing companies at the intersection of sports, media, and entertainment. Backers of the fund included

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

City Football Group City Football Group Limited (CFG) is a holding company that administers association football clubs. The group is owned by three organisations; of which 81% is majority owned by Newton Investment and Development LLC, 18% by the American firm Sil ...

(CFG) alongside owners, investors, and family offices from the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL),

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

(MLB),

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...

(NBA),

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

(NHL), and

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

(MLS).. Later in 2019, Sapphire Ventures re-launched #OpenLP, a community to foster idea sharing, open dialogue and overall greater connectivity among entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and limited partners (LPs). That year, Sapphire also raised $1.4 billion across investment strategies, including a $150 million opportunity fund to support larger deals. In 2021, the firm raised $1.7 billion in February and an additional $2 billion in November across multiple investment strategies, with its assets under management surpassing $8.8 billion. This increase in capital also allowed the firm to expand its Portfolio Growth capabilities. Later that year, Sapphire made a major expansion in Europe and appointed Annalise Dragic as partner, making Dragic one of the youngest female venture capital partners in Europe. In 2022, Sapphire Ventures joined the board of the National Venture Capital Association with one of the firm's partners, Beezer Clarkson serving from 2022 through 2026. The firm additionally became the official sponsor of PitchBook's podcast.

Investment Strategies

Sapphire has funds that comprise three primary investment strategies: Sapphire Ventures, Sapphire Partners, and Sapphire Sport spanning across

early Early may refer to: History * The beginning or oldest part of a defined historical period, as opposed to middle or late periods, e.g.: ** Early Christianity ** Early modern Europe Places in the United States * Early, Iowa * Early, Texas * Early ...

through

growth Growth may refer to: Biology * Auxology, the study of all aspects of human physical growth * Bacterial growth * Cell growth * Growth hormone, a peptide hormone that stimulates growth * Human development (biology) * Plant growth * Secondary growth ...

stages and through

direct Direct may refer to: Mathematics * Directed set, in order theory * Direct limit of (pre), sheaves * Direct sum of modules, a construction in abstract algebra which combines several vector spaces Computing * Direct access (disambiguation), a ...

and fund-of-fund investments.

Sapphire Ventures

Sapphire Ventures invests in high-growth, expansion-stage technology companies, specifically focusing on

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...

machine learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of inquiry devoted to understanding and building methods that 'learn', that is, methods that leverage data to improve performance on some set of tasks. It is seen as a part of artificial intelligence. Machine ...

, B2B

SaaS Software as a service (SaaS ) is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. SaaS is also known as "on-demand software" and Web-based/Web-hosted software. SaaS is cons ...

web3 Web3 (also known as Web 3.0) is an idea for a new iteration of the World Wide Web which incorporates concepts such as decentralization, blockchain technologies, and token-based economics. Some technologists and journalists have contrasted it w ...

cyber security Computer security, cybersecurity (cyber security), or information technology security (IT security) is the protection of computer systems and networks from attack by malicious actors that may result in unauthorized information disclosure, the ...

, data & analytics,

devops DevOps is a set of practices that combines software development (''Dev'') and IT operations (''Ops''). It aims to shorten the systems development life cycle and provide continuous delivery with high software quality. DevOps is complementary to a ...

fintech Fintech, a portmanteau of "financial technology", refers to firms using new technology to compete with traditional financial methods in the delivery of financial services. Artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing, and big data are r ...

, health tech, and vertical

Sapphire Partners

Sapphire Partners is a

limited partner A limited partnership (LP) is a form of partnership similar to a general partnership except that while a general partnership must have at least two general partners (GPs), a limited partnership must have at least one GP and at least one limited p ...

that backs early-stage tech venture funds, from seed funds as small as $40 million up to series A investors with more than $100 million in capital. The strategy has invested in funds including

Union Square Ventures Union Square Ventures (USV) is an American venture capital firm based in New York City. The firm has backed more than 130 startups, including Twitter, Etsy, Stripe, Coinbase, Zynga, Tumblr, Stack Overflow, Meetup, Kickstarter, MongoDB, Flurry, ...

, Amplify Partners, SaaStr, Point Nine Capital, Data Collective, and Screendoor among others. The strategy was originally set up as a $405 million

fund of funds A "fund of funds" (FOF) is an investment strategy of holding a portfolio of other investment funds rather than investing directly in stocks, bonds or other securities. This type of investing is often referred to as multi-manager investment. A f ...

and was later modified to recycle distributions to meet future contribution obligations. Additionally, along with this investment strategy, Sapphire supports an online community called #OpenLP aimed at educating venture investors and tech entrepreneurs about issues related to the venture ecosystem which it relaunched in 2019.

Sapphire Sport

Sapphire Sport invests in early-stage technology companies at the intersection of sport, media and entertainment. In early 2019 the strategy launched a $115 million investment vehicle backed by affiliates of the world's largest and most well-known sports leagues as well as

Adidas Adidas AG (; stylized as adidas since 1949) is a German multinational corporation, founded and headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, that designs and manufactures shoes, clothing and accessories. It is the largest sportswear manufactur ...

AEG Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft AG (AEG; ) was a German producer of electrical equipment founded in Berlin as the ''Deutsche Edison-Gesellschaft für angewandte Elektricität'' in 1883 by Emil Rathenau. During the Second World War, AEG ...

Sinclair Broadcast Group Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (SBG) is a publicly traded American telecommunications conglomerate that is controlled by the descendants of company founder Julian Sinclair Smith. Headquartered in the Baltimore suburb of Cockeysville, Maryland, t ...

. Investments have included Aglet, Breathwrk, Buzzer, Fevo, Flowhaven, Green Park, Jackpot.com, Manicore, Mixhalo, Overtime, PlayVS, POAP, Tonal, and Trust. Exits include

MyCujoo MyCujoo was a video streaming platformPaul Nicholson"AFC rolls out live streaming platform as media and marketing workshops gather pace" ''Inside World Football'', 29 July 2016. providing live and on-demand broadcast of football matches, sports ...

and

Phoenix Labs Phoenix Labs is a Canadian video game developer based in Vancouver, British-Columbia. The company was founded in April 2014 by former Riot Games developers Jesse Houston, Sean Bender, and Robin Mayne. The studio's first project, Dauntless (video ...

Portfolio Growth

Sapphire's Portfolio Growth division works with its portfolio companies and venture funds to offer support in the areas of customer, partner, and executive talent introductions. As part of the firm's $1.7 billion capital raise in 2021, the Portfolio Growth division saw an expansion. The division also has a "centers of excellence" strategy which offers founders support with sales and GTM strategies, international expansion, insights into how CIO and CXO enterprise decision-makers evaluate new and emerging technologies, and capital market oversight. The division makes hundreds of executive talent and customer introductions each year. The firm was recognized during the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

pandemic for coming up with creative ways to guide and share playbooks developed for and during the pandemic.

Investments

Since the firm's founding, Sapphire has invested in more than 130 companies across 10 countries, with more than 70 exits across 30

IPOs In demonology, Ipos is an Earl and powerful Prince of Hell (a Duke to some authors) who has thirty-six legions of demons under his command. He knows and can reveal all things, past, present and future (only the future to some authors, and past ...

and 45

acquisitions Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of companies, other business organizations, or their operating units are transferred to or consolidated with another company or business organization. As an aspect ...

Lahiri, Anusuya
"Sapphire Ventures Rakes In $1.7B To Fund Tech Startups"
(c)

Benzinga Benzinga is a financial news website headquartered in Detroit, Michigan. The company provides financial news, analytics content, and daily newsletters. It publishes both original news and syndicated news. It was founded in 2010 by Jason Raznick. ...

via

Yahoo! Finance Yahoo! Finance is a media property that is part of the Yahoo! network. It provides financial news, data and commentary including stock quotes, press releases, financial reports, and original content. It also offers some online tools for perso ...

, February 4, 2021. Retrieved 2021-02-06. making it one of the most active venture capital firms based on public exits. Notable Sapphire-backed portfolio companies that have experienced IPOs or acquisitions include

(Merged with SPAC),

(IPO),

Apigee Apigee Corp. was an API management and predictive analytics software provider before its merger into Google Cloud. It was founded in 2004 as Sonoa Systems before being rebranded as Apigee in 2010. Apigee was acquired by Google in a deal worth ...

(IPO, Acquisition by

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...

(Acquired by

Okta In meteorology, an okta is a unit of measurement used to describe the amount of cloud cover at any given location such as a weather station. Sky conditions are estimated in terms of how many eighths of the sky are covered in cloud, ranging from ...

), AvidXchange (IPO),

(IPO), Braze (IPO),

(IPO),

Cazoo Cazoo is a British online car retailer based in London, England which was founded in 2018 by Alex Chesterman. History Cazoo was founded in 2018 by British internet entrepreneur Alex Chesterman. It launched an online marketplace for used cars in ...

(Merged with SPAC),

(IPO)

(IPO),

ExactTarget Salesforce Marketing Cloud is a provider of digital marketing automation and analytics software and services. It was founded in 2000 under the name ExactTarget. The company filed for an IPO in 2007, but withdrew its filing two years later and rais ...

(IPO, Acquired by

Salesforce Salesforce, Inc. is an American cloud-based software company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It provides customer relationship management (CRM) software and applications focused on sales, customer service, marketing automation, a ...

(IPO, Acquired by Google), Five9 (IPO),

Integral Ad Science Integral Ad Science (IAS) is an American publicly owned technology company that analyzes the value of digital advertising placements. Integral Ad Science is known for addressing issues around fraud, viewability and brand risk, as well as TRAQ, a p ...

(IPO), JFrog (IPO),

(IPO),

(IPO, Acquired by

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

), Livongo (IPO, Merger with

Teladoc Teladoc Health, Inc. is a multinational telemedicine and virtual healthcare company headquartered in the United States. Primary services include telehealth, medical opinions, AI and analytics, telehealth devices and licensable platform servic ...

(Acquired by

(IPO, Acquired by

(IPO),

(IPO, Acquired by

Thoma Bravo Thoma Bravo, LP, is an American private equity and growth capital firm with offices in San Francisco, Chicago and Miami. It is known for being particularly active in acquiring software companies and has over $114 billion in assets under manage ...

), Sumo Logic (IPO), Wise /

(IPO). Some of Sapphire’s current investments include: 6Sense, BetterUp, BlockDaemon, Brightfield, Catchpoint,

, Clari,

, feedzai,

, LeanData, Mercury, Pendo, Reltio, and Tetrate.

Recognition

CB Insights CB Insights is a private company with a business analytics platform and global database that provides market intelligence on private companies and investor activities. The platform is targeted at private equity, venture capital, investment bankin ...

recognized Sapphire Ventures as Top 5 VC based on participation in major tech exits. Specifically, the independent study compiled a list of VCs with at least five of the top 100 exits in the period between Q1 2013 and Q2 2015 and ranked each VC according to how many of these exits they were involved in. Sapphire Ventures was named #4 on the list with 10 exits, behind Accel,

New Enterprise Associates New Enterprise Associates (NEA) is an American-based venture capital firm. NEA focuses investment stages ranging from seed stage through growth stage across an array of industry sectors. With ~$25 billion in committed capital, NEA is one of the w ...

and

Sequoia Capital Sequoia Capital is an American venture capital firm. The firm is headquartered in Menlo Park, California, and specializes in seed stage, early stage, and growth stage investments in private companies across technology sectors. , Sequoia's total a ...

. PitchBook highlighted Sapphire Ventures as a Top 5 VC based on public exits in 2016. The firm was named alongside Sequoia, IVP, Accel,

DAG Ventures DAG Ventures is an American venture capital firm based in Palo Alto, California. DAG Ventures works with startups in providing early stage and growth stage funding. Since its founding in 2004, by Tom Goodrich and John Cadeddu, the firm has backed ...

, Bessemer, and

Kleiner Perkins Kleiner Perkins, formerly Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), is an American venture capital firm which specializes in investing in incubation, early stage and growth companies. Since its founding in 1972, the firm has backed entrepreneurs ...

Inc. Magazine ''Inc.'' is an American business magazine founded in 1979 and based in New York City. The magazine publishes six issues per year, along with surrounding online and social media content. The magazine also produces several live and virtual events y ...

named Sapphire Ventures a “founder friendly” investor in both 2022 and 2021. In 2022, Sapphire was recognized as one of the "world's premier venture capital firms," specifically noting the capabilities of the firm to invest across verticals within software including web3 and next generation media.

References

{{reflist

External links

Official website
Financial services companies established in 1996 Venture capital firms of the United States American companies established in 1996