Techstars Announces $42 Million Investment

BOULDER, Colo., July 30, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Techstars, the worldwide network that helps entrepreneurs succeed, today announced a $42M investment led by SVB Financial Group, the holding company of Silicon Valley Bank, with additional participation from existing investors including Foundry Group. This funding will accelerate Techstars' growth to help more entrepreneurs succeed through seed-stage accelerators, global startup ecosystem activations, corporate innovation, and entrepreneur-focused events.

Techstars consists of both an investment management business with $500 million in assets under management as well as an operating business that is rapidly approaching $100 million in annual revenue.

Techstars' investment activity now includes 49 accelerator programs in 35 cities across 16 countries, deploying $80 million into nearly 500 startups on an annual basis. The Techstars portfolio of 1,900 companies currently attracts an annual $2 billion in downstream investment from the venture capital industry. Techstars also invests in global emerging startup communities by operating approximately 1,000 annual Techstars Startup Weekend events in 600 cities across 120 countries to help surface and support future high growth companies.

"Being the largest and most active global seed investor requires a mindset and approach that is completely distinct from traditional venture capital," said Techstars Co-CEO David Cohen. "Techstars has created and is scaling an entirely new type of early-stage private equity asset."

Through its operating activities, Techstars partners with nearly 100 corporations to provide corporate innovation solutions. Techstars is also an active partner with cities such as Buffalo (NY), Louisville (KY), and Turin (Italy) to further develop their startup communities.

In addition to the financing, John China, President of SVB Capital, has joined Techstars' Board of Directors. "The Techstars team is well-positioned to keep developing its platform and enable and support founders, investors and startup ecosystems around the globe," said China. "SVB has a long history working with Techstars and its portfolio companies and we're enthusiastic about the opportunity to further our relationship and make a bigger positive impact on the innovation economy."

About Techstars

Techstars is the worldwide network that helps entrepreneurs succeed. Techstars enables founders to connect with entrepreneurs, experts, mentors, alumni, investors, community leaders, and corporations to grow their companies. Techstars accelerator alumni including Classpass, DataRobot, DigitalOcean, Outreach, Pillpack, Remitly, SalesLoft, SendGrid, and Zipline have a current market cap of more than $22 billion. Founded in 2006 by co-founders and co-CEOs David Cohen and David Brown, tech entrepreneur and venture capitalist Brad Feld, and the current Governor of Colorado, Jared Polis, Techstars is known for developing the principle of #givefirst, a core value of giving to and helping others without a direct expectation of a transactional return. Headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, Techstars employs more than 280 people across 20 countries. Learn more at www.techstars.com.

About SVB Financial Group

For more than 35 years, SVB Financial Group SIVB and its subsidiaries have helped innovative companies and their investors move bold ideas forward, fast. SVB Financial Group's businesses, including Silicon Valley Bank, offer commercial, private and investment banking, asset management, private wealth management, brokerage, and investment services and funds management services to companies in the technology, life science and healthcare, private equity and venture capital, and premium wine industries. Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, SVB Financial Group operates in centers of innovation around the world. Learn more at www.svb.com.

SOURCE Techstars