CRV (venture capital firm)

CRV, LLC
FormerlyCharles River Ventures
Company typePrivate
IndustryVenture capital
Founded1970 (1970)
HeadquartersPalo Alto, California, United States
ProductsInvestments
Total assets$4.3 billion
Number of employees
20+
Websitewww.crv.com

CRV, formerly Charles River Ventures, is an American venture capital firm focused on early-stage investments in technology. The firm was founded in 1970 to commercialize research that came out of MIT. Its name comes from the Boston area Charles River.

History

Charles River Ventures was established in 1970 in Boston, Massachusetts. Dick Burnes, founder of Teradyne, helped found the firm.

By the early 2000s, the firm opened an office in Silicon Valley.[1]

The firm has raised over $4.3 billion since inception across 18 funds. Upon closing of the 16th fund, the firm rebranded to CRV.[2] Prior to that, CRV's 15th fund closed in February 2012 with $375 million of investor commitments.[3] CRV's 14th fund raised $320 million of commitments.[4]

In 2013, it invested $15 million in Pebble Technology, which was credited as the primary reason why Pebble was acquired by Fitbit in December 2016. This netted CRV a $40 million return.[5]

In 2024, CRV returned 275 million dollars from the 500 million it had raised in its current fund back to investors, stating that their focus would shift away from late-stage investments and toward the early stage.[6]

Among CRV's portfolio companies are Aveksa,[7] DoorDash,[8] mabl,[9] OneLogin,[10] Stella,[11] Sybase,[12] Yammer,[13] and Zendesk.[14]

References

  1. ^ Crichton, Danny (2016-06-29). "A Plan For New York". Danny Crichton on Technology, Global Risk and Strategy. Retrieved 2026-02-11.
  2. ^ Lawler, Ryan (14 July 2014). "Now That Charles River Ventures Has Closed Its 16th Fund, It Wants To Be Called CRV". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-07-15.
  3. ^ Charles River Raises A $375M Fifteenth Fund For Early Stage Investing. peHUB, February 28, 2012
  4. ^ Charles River Ventures Raises $320 Million For Its Fourteenth Fund. TechCrunch, March 30, 2009
  5. ^ Orlowski, Andrew. "Who killed Pebble? Easy: The vulture capitalists". www.theregister.co.uk.
  6. ^ Griffith, Erin (Oct 2, 2024). "A Venture Capital Firm Does Something Rare: Give Money Back". New York Times. Archived from the original on Oct 2, 2024. Retrieved Oct 2, 2024.
  7. ^ McBride, Ryan. "Investors Back Growing Bay State Software Firms Aveksa and Apparent Networks in Pair of Series C Financings". xconomy. Retrieved 5 April 2013.
  8. ^ Temkin, Marina (2025-08-01). "Venture firm CRV raises $750M, downsizing after returning capital to investors". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2026-03-04.
  9. ^ Lardinois, Frederic (February 21, 2018). "With $10M in funding, Mabl brings machine learning to software testing". TechCrunch.
  10. ^ Gage, Deborah (October 3, 2013). "OneLogin Picks Up $13 Million to Manage Online Corporate Identities". Wall Street Journal.
  11. ^ "This week in N.Y.C. funding news: Ellevest, Ripple, KeyMe - New York Business Journal". Retrieved 2016-09-16.
  12. ^ Sybase President Gains The Confidence of Apple. The New York Times, August 25, 1987
  13. ^ Geron, Tomio. "Before $1.2 Billion Deal, Yammer Was Side Project: Largest Investor George Zachary". www.forbes.com.
  14. ^ Konrad, Alex. "Charles River Ventures Wins Big On Zendesk's IPO, But For Boston Venture It's Bittersweet". www.forbes.com.


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