Harvard pulls plug on ITU Ventures
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Continuing the story on venture capital woes, we’ve just found out that Harvard University has pulled the plug on another venture fund, this time ITU Ventures III.
The firm raised its $120 million third fund last year to invest in technology companies. But Harvard saw three people leave, and decided it was “strike three.” Harvard, the lead investor in the fund, has sent an email to other investors about its decision to pull out, and so some of these others also seem to be pulling out.
We may be sitting at the center of the venture capital universe here in Silicon Valley, but elite East Coast universities such as Harvard and Yale make many of the life and death decisions about venture firms. The pressure by big investors on venture firms is largely an unwritten story. If you are pitching a VC, and his eyes look shifty, don’t take it personally. Realize he may be under even more pressure than you are!
We reached co-founder Chad Brownstein, who said the firm itself will remain open, but that he couldn’t comment on the status of the third fund for confidentiality reasons. “Everyone’s happy,” he said. “The firm is doing great, we’re moving along.”
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About the Author, Matt Marshall
Matt launched VentureBeat in September of 2006, with the realization that no one else was covering the entrepreneurial and tech innovation scene with the velocity or depth that he was. Prior to founding VentureBeat, he covered venture capital for the San Jose Mercury News from 2001 to 2006. In 2002, Matt was awarded "Journalist of the Year" by the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists. Prior to working at the Merc, he was a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal in Bonn, Germany from 1995 to 1998, and a writer for the Washington Post in 1994. Matt holds a PhD in Government and an MA in German and European Studies from Georgetown University. In addition to VentureBeat, Matt is also the Executive Producer of DEMO, the leading launchpad event for emerging technologies.
