20 worst VC investments of all time
InsideCRM has a list of what it says are the twenty worst VC investments of all time. See full details here, but here’s the quick list:
- Amp’d Mobile: $360 million raised, ended in bankruptcy.
- Procket: $272 million, sold for $89 million.
- Webvan: Valued at $1.2 billion, went bankrupt in 2001. Ate through $800 million in venture capital, ended with $830 million in losses.
- Caspian Networks: >$300 million in funding, closed doors.
- Pets.com: $50 million from Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Bowman Capital, and Amazon.com Inc., did sock-puppet ads, then crashed.
- Optiva: $41.5 million, crashed.
- Kozmo.com: $250 million, liquidated.
- CueCat: $185 million from investors like The Coca-Cola Co. and General Electric Co., bombed.
- DeNovis Inc.: $125 million, closed.
- PointCast Inc.: Tens of millions of dollars in venture capital and a $400 million buy offer, then sold for $7 million.
- eToys: Backed by VC firms Idealab, Highland Capital Partners and Sequoia Capital, ended in bankruptcy.
- AllAdvantage: $135 million in venture capital down the drain.
- FastForward: $54 million into the company, bankrupt.
- Xoma: This 26-year old company has not earned a profit since its inception in 1981. [Update: This one should be taken off the list. It entered the black for the first time two weeks ago!]
- Flooz.com: $50 million, went broke.
- Vanguarde Media Inc.: $60 million in VC funding, went under.
- Pixelon.com: $16 million not remarkable, but burned through with remarkable style.
- Bolt Media Inc.: >$60 million in venture backing, shut down.
- DigiScents: $20 million in investment, shut down.
- Boo.com: $120 million, went bust.
[Update: Dan Primack has since produced another list, using a different method]
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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.
