Early stage venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson is forming a new $500
million venture fund in conjunction with 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.