Lowercase Capital
| Industry | Venture capital |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2010 |
| Founder | Chris Sacca |
| Headquarters | , |
Key people | Crystal English Sacca, Clay Dumas, Rebecca Revel[2] |
| Website | lowercasecapital |
Lowercase Capital was an American venture capital firm that provided seed and early-stage funding for several successful startups, including Twitter, Twilio, Kickstarter, Uber, Instagram, and Stripe. It raised over $1 billion in capital, and sources claim a return of at least $5 billion to its investors.[3][4] In 2017 Chris Sacca closed the fund for new start-up investments to focus on climate action and politics. He said, however, that Lowercase Capital would continue to support the existing portfolio of investments.[5]
History
[edit]Lowercase was founded by Chris Sacca in May 2010 with commitments of $8.5 million from limited partners including Richard Branson and Eric Schmidt.[6] One of the firm's marquee investments was an investment in pre-IPO Twitter, which contributed to more than 1,500% growth in Lowercase's funds, returning approximately “$5 billion to investors.”[4] Fortune has speculated that Lowercase Ventures Fund I, with holdings in Uber, Docker, and Optimizely is the best-performing fund of all time from a return multiple perspectives.[7]
Founder Chris Sacca refers to himself as the “proprietor” of Lowercase. In the context of his work at Lowercase, Forbes has credited him with allegedly crafting “the best seed portfolio ever.[4] In 2017, the performance of the various funds earned Sacca second place on the Forbes’ Midas List, a yearly ranking of tech investors.[8] He served as a sometimes “shark” on the TV show “Shark Tank”[9] and played himself in ABC's “Alex Inc.”[10]
Crystal English Sacca, Chris's spouse and a former advertising creative, is a partner at the firm. She co-led many investments, including in Uber, Blue Bottle, and Veggie Grill.[11] Before the firm she won a Cannes Lion, Two Gold Cannes Cyberlions and other awards in the advertising industry.
In 2013, Matt Mazzeo joined Lowercase Capital as a partner.[12] Mazzeo had worked at Creative Artists Agency, an entertainment and sports agency.[13] In 2015, Mazzeo led a $25mm fund raised by Lowercase.[14]
In April 2017, Chris Sacca announced that the firm would cease to raise further capital from new investors or invest in new companies, but would continue to support its existing portfolio.[15]
Investments
[edit]Lowercase provides capital and advisory services to seed-stage startups and growth-stage companies. Among the companies Lowercase has invested in that have gone public or been acquired are Twitter, Instagram, Twilio, Facebook, and Uber. Well-known private companies in the Lowercase portfolio include Stripe, Docker, Optimizely, Kickstarter, WordPress, Medium, and Lookout. After 2017, Lowercase investments include Tala, Toymail, Lumi, Joymode, Nurx, Mark43, Makespace, Gimlet Media, Hatch Baby, and Wizeline.
Lowercase was active in 2017 in demanding the resignation of former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick following accusations of misconduct within Uber.[16]
Its investments also included 9GAG,[17] Automattic,[citation needed] Chartbeat,[citation needed] Dubsmash,[citation needed] Flirtey,[citation needed] Lumi,[citation needed] Noun Project,[citation needed] Optimizely,[18] Poll Everywhere,[19] Ranker,[20] Slack,[citation needed] Streak,[citation needed] Stripe,[21] Uber,[22] Urban Airship,[23] Veggie Grill,[24] and Webshots.[25]
References
[edit]- ^ "Company Overview". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2019-06-06.
- ^ "Team". Lowercase Capital. Retrieved 2019-06-06.
- ^ "How Chris Sacca And J.P. Morgan Acquired 10% Of Twitter Via Huge Secret Secondary Fund – TechCrunch". beta.techcrunch.com. 28 February 2011. Retrieved 2018-04-08.
- ^ a b c Konrad, Alex. "How Super Angel Chris Sacca Made Billions, Burned Bridges And Crafted The Best Seed Portfolio Ever". Forbes. Retrieved 2018-04-08.
- ^ "Chris Sacca to Retire From Startup Investing". Wall Street Journal. April 26, 2017.
- ^ "Chris Sacca's Lowercase Capital launches, declaring VC broken". VentureBeat. 2010-06-18. Retrieved 2018-04-08.
- ^ "Exclusive: Is this the best-performing VC fund ever?". Fortune. Retrieved 2018-04-08.
- ^ Konrad, Alex. "Chris Sacca - pg.2". Forbes. Retrieved 2018-04-08.
- ^ Konrad, Alex. "Ashton Kutcher, Troy Carter And Chris Sacca Test Investing Chops On New Season Of 'Shark Tank'". Forbes. Retrieved 2018-04-08.
- ^ Petski, Denise (2017-03-22). "Chris Sacca To Play Himself In ABC Start Up Comedy Pilot". Deadline. Retrieved 2018-04-08.
- ^ "Crystal English Sacca". LOWERCASE capital. 2016-02-26. Retrieved 2018-04-08.
- ^ "Eyeing LA, Chris Sacca Brings On His First Partner At Lowercase Capital: CAA's Matt Mazzeo – TechCrunch". techcrunch.com. 20 November 2012. Retrieved 2018-04-08.
- ^ "Want to Know How to Join One of the Country's Most Successful VC Fund?". Both Sides of the Table. 2015-06-24. Retrieved 2018-04-08.
- ^ "Lowercase Capital Is Raising A New $25M Fund, Led By Matt Mazzeo – TechCrunch". techcrunch.com. 10 June 2014. Retrieved 2018-04-08.
- ^ "Investor Chris Sacca is retiring from venture capital". TechCrunch. 26 April 2017. Retrieved 2020-06-07.
- ^ Isaac, Mike (22 June 2017). "Inside Travis Kalanick's Resignation as Uber's C.E.O." The New York Times.
- ^ "Lowercase Chris Sacca". AngelList. Retrieved 2019-06-06.
- ^ "Lowercase Capital Is Raising A New $25M Fund, Led By Matt Mazzeo". TechCrunch. 10 June 2014. Retrieved 2019-12-06.
- ^ "Poll Everywhere - CB Insights". www.cbinsights.com. Retrieved 2019-12-06.
- ^ "Ranker, "The World's Ranking Platform," Raises $2M From Lowercase And Others". TechCrunch. 27 June 2013. Retrieved 2019-12-06.
- ^ "Lowercase Capital Teardown". CB Insights Research. 2015-05-03. Retrieved 2019-12-10.
- ^ Sandler, Rachel. "Uber IPO: Here's Who Stood To Get Big Payouts". Forbes. Retrieved 2019-12-17.
- ^ "M&A". Fortune. Retrieved 2019-12-17.
- ^ "Funded Companies List - Venture Capital and Private Equity Financings - VC News Daily". www.vcnewsdaily.com. Retrieved 2019-12-20.
- ^ "Webshots(Acquired) Company Profile: Acquisition & Investors | PitchBook". pitchbook.com. Retrieved 2019-12-20.