And Now, Venture Capital for the Masses
By Beth Cox InternetNews.com December 10, 1999
© Copyright 1999 internet.com Corp.
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Early stage venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson www.dfj.com is
forming a new $500 million venture fund in conjunction with meVC.com
www.mevc.com, and the twist is that individual investors may participate.
"Venture capital has historically only been available to millionaires and
large institutional investors," said Tim Draper, founder and managing
director of the firm. "We want to allow the small investor a chance to
participate in this important driver of the U.S. economy." The first fund
with meVC.com is set up to help finance private Internet start-ups
throughout the United States with the help of the Draper Affiliate Network.
The Draper Affiliate Network currently includes Zone Ventures of Los
Angeles, Draper Atlantic of Northern Virginia, Draper Triangle of
Pittsburgh, Wasatch Ventures of Salt Lake City, Timberline Ventures of
Vancouver, and Draper Fisher Jurvetson's yet unnamed New York City office.
The network is growing at the rate of one new fund per quarter. Draper
Fisher Jurvetson funded Internet start-up meVC.com with $4.5 million to help
drive the front end of this new fund.
meVC, a national venture capital investment management firm, said it "offers
individual investors the opportunity to participate in the formation and
wealth creation of the new economy through venture capital investing."
Through a family of professionally managed, diversified venture capital
funds, meVC said it intends to provide individual investors "unprecedented
access to early-stage, emerging growth companies before their initial public
offerings." meVC, along with Draper Fisher Jurvetson, intends to create a
national network of venture capital and management services to support
innovation and help entrepreneurs build successful businesses. meVC was
founded in June 1999 and completed its second round of venture financing in
October.