NewView Capital: Portfolio Acquisitions and Operational Support
2022
| Case No.
E793
| Length
22 pgs.
In 2018, renowned venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates (NEA) faced challenges related to the rapid multiplication of its funds and growth of its portfolio. Ravi Viswanathan, then a General Partner and the Chief Operating Officer of the firm, identified an opportunity to start a new venture firm to acquire a subset of NEA’s portfolio companies through a secondary stock transaction. The strategy seemed beneficial for NEA, its Limited Partners (LPs), and the portfolio companies. It was the starting point of NewView Capital, a firm focused on portfolio acquisitions, direct investments in new companies, and strong operational support to its companies. The case covers NEA’s situation, the challenges and opportunities presented by secondary stock transactions, the formation of NewView Capital, its evolving strategy, and the perspective of one of the companies whose NEA ownership stake was acquired by NewView Capital in the secondary transaction.
Learning Objective
This case is designed to help students learn concepts useful for understanding the challenges and opportunities involved in secondary stock transactions for all the parties involved, the internal strategy and operations of a venture capital firm, and how investors might support its portfolio companies operationally.
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