Thursday, June 27, 2013
GRP Partners Raises New $200M Fund, Becomes Upfront Ventures
Los Angeles-based venture capital investor GRP Partners announced this morning that it has raised a fourth fund, worth $200M, and also renamed the firm Upfront Ventures. The 17-year old firm, which also said it will open up a brand new home at the center of Silicon Beach, signing a 10-year lease for a space on 7th Street in Santa Monica.
GRP Partners--which has invested in such successes as Overture, CitySearch, BillMeLater, DealerTrack, and others, and is currently an investor in Maker Studios, TrueCar, Burstly, and others--said it decided to change its branding as venture capital has changed. GRP has been quite active in the local technology industry, having founded accelerator LaunchpadLA. The investment firm also had a high visibility partner in the form of Mark Suster, who has helped drive awareness of the formerly quiet investment firm via his extensive blogging, social media, and conference appearances.
The new branding and location speak to the investment firm's huge push for visibility both on Silicon Beach as well as nationally; the firm said that although it has funded many, San Francisco startups, it really is looking beyond the "overwhelmingly white, male, Silicon Valley" startups and looking to make itself available nationally to promising startups.
Upfront Ventures said its new fund will focus on either Seed or Series A funding rounds, working with teams when its initial product is being debated and strategy is being formed, although it will selectively invest in Series B and Series C funding round.