venture capital founded 1969 headquarters palo alto california united states products investments website www.venrock.com venrock a compound of venture and rockefeller is a pioneering venture capital firm formed in 1969 to build upon the successful investing activities of the rockefeller family that began in the late 1930s . it has offices in palo alto california ; new york city ; and boston massachusetts . contents 1 history 2 see also 3 references 4 further reading 5 external links history edit the pioneering venture capitalist laurance s. rockefeller 1910 2004 was the fourth of the six children of john d. rockefeller jr. in january 1946 he formed rockefeller brothers inc. one of the first postwar venture capital operations starting with a capitalization of 1.5 million . there were eight partners in all the five famed brothers and their sister abby and two non family members harper woodward laurance s roommate from princeton and mit scientist ted walkowicz . in august 1969 the firm became known as venrock . over the years laurance became well known as an investor in enterprises based on science and technology . his investment interests included the fields of aviation aerospace electronics high temperature physics composite materials optics lasers data processing thermionics and nuclear power . it has invested more than 2.5 billion in more than 440 companies resulting in 125 initial public offerings over the past 40 years . venrock focuses its investments on early stage and start up companies in information technology and emerging technologies . these include intel apple appnexus stratacom check point software doubleclick 3com corporation mosaic pgp itek digex media6degrees reflexion medical shape security smartling phoenix second rotation gazelle redseal and ctera networks . it also has a significant venture in the nascent nanotechnology field with early funding of nanosys and the nanotech division of du pont . 1 in the healthcare sector with well known and respected partners such as bryan roberts venrock has invested in athenahealth healthsouth corporation medpartners inc. castlight health caliper technologies corporation centocor geron 2 genetics institute idec pharmaceuticals corporation illumina millennium pharmaceuticals sirna therapeutics and sugen . see also edit intel apple doubleclick geron biotime illumina digex nanotechnology references edit http www.nytimes.com 2004 03 15 business technology bashful vs brash in the new field of nanotech.html sec schedule 13g filed feb. 17 1999 . further reading edit harr john ensor and peter j. johnson . the rockefeller century three generations of america s greatest family . new york charles scribner s sons 1988 . winks robin w. laurance s. rockefeller catalyst for conservation . new york island press 1997 . external links edit company website starting up in silicon valley long hours forsaken lives the new york times february 6 1984 v t e private equity and venture capital basic investment types buyout venture mezzanine growth secondaries equity co investment history history of private equity and venture capital early history of private equity private equity in the 1980s private equity in the 1990s private equity in the 2000s terms and concepts buyout financial sponsor management buyout divisional buyout buy sell agreement leveraged recapitalization dividend recapitalization venture angel investor business incubator post money valuation pre money valuation seed money startup company venture capital financing venture debt venture round structure private equity firms and funds limited partnership limited liability company carried interest management fee publicly traded private equity business development company venture capital trust private investment in public equity pipe pledge fund investors corporations institutional investors pension funds insurance companies fund of funds endowments foundations investment banks merchant banks commercial banks high net worth individuals family offices sovereign wealth funds crowdfunding related financial terms aum cap table capital call capital commitment capital structure distribution waterfall ebitda envy ratio high yield debt ipo irr leverage liquidation preference m & a pme taxation of private equity and hedge funds undercapitalization vintage year private equity and venture capital investors private equity firms venture capital firms angel investors portfolio companies retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title venrock & oldid 741071062 categories companies based in menlo park californiarockefeller familyventure capital firms of the united states navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what 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