Today, we’re excited to talk about our recent funding announcement with Habu. Data privacy laws have been in place for several years, and most companies now understand GDPR and CCPA type privacy regulations. But operating competitively within the confines of data privacy regulations hasn’t been easy or without risk.   What’s a data clean room? […]

  We recently invested in a vertical marketplace and e-commerce company, Babylist, after following the company for multiple years. We often identify great entrepreneurs early and find some that bootstrap and have little need for outside capital. Babylist was one of those companies whose products and offerings speak to their customer base filling a whitespace, […]

Before venture, I spent five years at LinkedIn leading product for the recruiting business. We were the company’s revenue engine, so we closely monitored our performance with a set of dashboards that refreshed nightly. And so, every morning, the first thing I did after waking up was open the dashboard email with a knot in […]

We’ve gotten in the habit of leaving home without our physical wallets these days. From our daily morning coffee to paying for our kids’ soccer dues, the digital wallets on our phones have become the default payment vehicle for most transactions. COVID-19 only accelerated this behavioral change as both convenience and sanitary concerns came to […]

We are thrilled to announce our investment in Praxis Labs, where we are co-leading their $15.5M Series A round. Our relationship with Praxis Labs’ CEO and co-founder Elise Smith stems back to the company’s Seed days. Even then, it was clear that Elise had tapped into a burning market need for immersive training around justice, […]

Companies go to a lot of trouble to create attractive benefits packages to appeal to good employees and retain them. The trouble is that a lot of employees don’t know what they’re getting. A recent survey found that more than a third of employees don’t understand what benefits they sign up for during open enrollment. […]

ICON Creates a New Paradigm for Homebuilding There’s a housing crisis in the U.S. Our country needs 3.3 million homes built per year, but due to multiple factors, including the shortage of skilled labor, we’re building just over a third of that number. The persistent imbalance of supply and demand for homes has contributed to […]

Today, Norwest is thrilled to announce our Series B investment in Enable. Enable has built a next-generation channel incentive management platform that automatically helps distributors, manufacturers, and retailers track, calculate, accrue, and allocate B2B rebates.   Strong Team When we met the founder and CEO Andrew Butt, we were impressed with his clarity of thought, […]

Recently we announced our strategic investment in supplier.io, the leading SaaS provider of supplier diversity management.  This adds to a long list of Norwest’s Growth Equity investments into social impact-focused businesses.  The company has profitably sustained 40%+ annual growth rates, and we are very excited to help them build upon that momentum. Many of us […]

Robots have long been seen as a pinnacle of tech innovation. Unfortunately, they’ve also been seen as a malign force. In Hollywood and other circles, robots have been cast as evil machines that outwit us, replace us, and even threaten the human race. They have a long way to go to get to that point. […]

Treeverse announced today the completion of a $23M round to continue building lakeFS – an innovative open source project bringing manageability to large-scale data lakes.  Why Now? Data lakes across all sizes and for multiple purposes are gaining popularity among enterprises for their unprecedented large and accelerating data storage needs. To illustrate this trend, according […]

Homeowners looking to expand their livable space – to accommodate aging parents or drive income through rentals – can find themselves with limited options. Buying a bigger home can be cost-prohibitive or (at the very least) painstaking and inconvenient. Renovations, on the other hand, require an expert’s grasp on local zoning and permitting laws and […]

In our time at Norwest, we have invested a lot of our focus in vertical SaaS. This software has pertained to a range of industries, from construction/real estate to education, and public safety. However, for a long time, we have wanted to get behind a platform company that benefits nonprofit and social impact goals. A […]

It’s an obvious statement, but the Amazon marketplace is massive. 200 million Prime customers happily browse millions of listings, spending more than $300 billion annually. E-commerce is growing at a torrid clip (40% in 2020), and most product searches now start on Amazon. The stats below are eye-opening: Source: State of the Amazon Seller 2021, […]

Wi-Fi has become the wireless network access method on which we depend to run almost every business and consumer application imaginable. Its success has been legendary. It’s also been a bit of a surprise to those of us who remember Wi-Fi’s humble beginnings within the consumer market and as a secondary network used primarily by […]

Marriage counseling can be good for a relationship, but it can often yield positive effects that extend beyond intimate connections. In the case of Oren and Roni Frank, marriage counseling is what helped to spawn the initial idea for Talkspace. When the dynamic husband-wife duo was in the process of receiving mental health services personally, […]

When a top corporate executive, Paul H. O’Neill, took the reins at industrial giant Alcoa in 1987, he inherited a company in a tough spot encountering several operational and financial challenges. Common sense suggested that cutting costs and making the company more efficient were logical routes to take, considering the company’s poor financial position. Instead, […]

Buying a home is one of the most important milestones and largest financial investment in your life. And yet for most people, the process is complicated, it’s time consuming and it’s stressful. It requires searching and selecting a buyer’s agent and then finding a small army of ancillary support – ranging from mortgage loan officers, […]

With historically low housing inventory and outsized demand for homes, today’s homebuyers need help overcoming the financial limitations of the traditional real estate transaction. We are excited to announce our Series B investment in Homeward, a new kind of home financing company. Homeward partners with real estate agents to make every homebuyer a cash buyer. […]

Six months after leaving Comcast Ventures and resigning from the Uptycs Board of Directors (as per my transition), I’m very excited to now be reunited with the amazing Uptycs team and investors. The legendary words of Peaches & Herb reverberating… “Reunited, and it feels so good.” Venture investors often lament that they have imperfect information […]

I’m extremely excited to announce our Series A investment in Swimply, a fast-growing peer-to-peer pool-sharing marketplace founded by Bunim Laskin and Asher Weinberger. If you’ve ever experienced a summer in the suburbs, you’ve probably had the experience of peering over your neighbor’s fence and coveting their pool. Swimply makes this dream a reality, connecting consumers […]

The COVID-19 pandemic has reawakened the world to the unique and ever-present dangers of novel viruses and the pandemics they cause. Novel viral pandemics have the potential not only to kill millions, but also to paralyze society and the normal social interactions we take for granted. Forty years ago, in 1981, a novel viral illness […]

Founded a company and thinking about raising a Series A? Matt Howard has led 22 Series A investments over the past 20+ years as a VC through five recessions. Most of these investments occurred well before the product launched and were largely based on one or two founders with 15+ PowerPoint slides!  We take pride […]

It feels like yesterday when Norwest led Productiv’s Series B funding round back in 2019. Now, only 16 months later, I’m proud to share that Productiv has raised a $45M Series C round led by our friends at IVP with participation from Atlassian Ventures and existing investors Norwest, Accel, and Okta Ventures. This round further […]

Here are a few reasons: We don’t have your phone number. We have your phone number, but you’re not replying to our texts or voicemails. You’re also not replying to our LinkedIn messages, Venmo payments, or even our handwritten letters. We don’t know where you go for your morning jog, so we can’t stage a […]

“Once in a Lifetime” by Talking Heads is a work of genius. I’m not the kind of person that often ruminates on the choices that have gotten me to where I am today, but this song always puts me in an introspective mood. While I will use any excuse no matter how flimsy to bring […]

This past year has been anything but static. Folks on the front lines are expected to react in real-time, often amid changing circumstances. For many, the stakes are high. In these moments, it can be difficult to recall what was written in a training manual or scribbled on a whiteboard. That’s why we are so […]

Today, Norwest is thrilled to announce our Series C investment in Harness. Harness is the leading intelligent continuous integration, continuous delivery (CI/CD) and software delivery platform that empowers software engineering teams to develop applications more quickly and securely. We’re excited to partner with co-founders Jyoti Bansal (CEO) and Rishi Singh (CTO) on their journey to […]

I first met Opendoor co-founder and CEO Eric Wu in 2016 when he called me for a reference check on an executive he was considering hiring. In the course of our conversation, I asked Eric about his company. Eric proceeded to tell me about his vision for Opendoor, and I was hooked. He had me […]

Ed Yip, Matt Howard, Celona and Tempo featured in this article. 

Norwest is thrilled to announce our Series B investment in ZineOne, a leading predictive customer engagement platform. ZineOne’s Intelligent Customer Engagement platform uses its patent-pending Customer DNA technology to uncover the precise moment when brands should interact with their visitors across digital channels with relevant, real-time 1:1 engagements. We’re excited to have the opportunity to […]

Faire – Reshaping Local Retail Initially, it seemed like 2020 would be a challenging year for Faire. The company helps connect local, independent businesses with brands and artisans to stock their shelves with the best goods. Many of these local retailers were experiencing a slow-down in foot traffic or mandatorily closed across the country as […]

COVID-19 has disrupted many industries this year – from travel to food to healthcare. 2020 has exposed deep vulnerabilities in these sectors and presented opportunities for innovation. Health care is undergoing a rapid transformation to meet the challenges of COVID-19 and we believe there has never been a better time to reimagine the system. One […]

We are thrilled to announce our Series B investment in VanMoof, a category-defining leader in the fast-growing e-bike market. The company’s vision is to put one billion customers on VanMoof bikes, and we are thrilled to partner with the team on this journey.  The E-Bike Moment is Here  2020, despite all of its attendant challenges, […]

I realized something recently when I was picking my friend’s brain about writing this particular post. I shared what I thought was a compelling outline for the basis of the piece, hitting upon the rationale for why I led the Series A investment in Replicant, a company that has developed a product and technology that […]

I love investing in great entrepreneurs and products, and Qualified checks both boxes. I have known the founders, Kraig Swensrud and Sean Whiteley, for a decade, working together during some of the highest growth years at Salesforce. Having built multiple companies in the CRM, marketing and VoC spaces, the founders saw a unique opportunity to […]

“Uh, hold on a sec. Let me change accounts so you don’t mess up my rankings on the leaderboard.” I was 20 squats into a high-intensity full-body workout on the new Tempo machine and could already feel the burn in my quads. I was focused on my form while controlling my breathing (so everyone in […]

Automating Relief from an Error-Prone Process  Today, Norwest is thrilled to announce our Series A investment in Spiff, a leading sales compensation automation platform. Spiff simplifies sales commission calculations and enables companies to easily build and maintain compensation plans. Founder and CEO Jeron Paul felt the burden of manually calculating commissions firsthand and set out […]

Eleven years ago, I was walking my labradoodles at my neighborhood dog park and bumped into a past colleague, Krish Ramakrishnan, who was there with his dogs. It’s amazing how you can have such unexpectedly deep conversations when the common denominator is a dog. I knew Krish from my time at Cisco, where my business unit […]

Closing the books. It’s a process well known to every CFO, controller, and accountant across corporate America. It’s painstakingly manual, time-consuming and fragmented but it is critical to ensuring a solid set of books and measuring financial health. The rapid rise of cloud computing at companies has led to improved efficiency across critical enterprise business […]

Today, nearly every U.S. citizen has had their personal information stolen or known someone who has been a victim of a data breach. Cyber criminals use these stolen credentials to imitate real people online using bots. In 2011, Derek Smith, Sumit Agarwal and Justin Call founded Shape Security (Shape) and invented the world’s first botwall […]

At Norwest, we’ve been watching and investing in innovative security startups for several decades. In that time, we’ve witnessed security technologies like the firewall, malware detection/prevention, endpoint security solutions, and behavioral-based technologies fundamentally alter the cybersecurity landscape. As new threats arrive with lightning speed, companies are struggling to maintain security in the best of corporate […]

We’re thrilled to announce the closing of NVP XV, a $2B fund and our largest to date. The new fund brings the firm’s total capital commitments to more than $9.5B and will help us support disruptive and market-leading companies from seed to late-stage across consumer, enterprise technology, and healthcare sectors. Today we’re not only celebrating […]

I’m thrilled to announce that Norwest is leading a $20M Series B financing round in Productiv, a company that is defining a new category known as Application Engagement Analytics. More on that in a bit! I first met Productiv’s CEO and co-founder, Jody Shapiro, at the Wharton School where we were classmates back in 2009. We […]

Back in 2014, Kyle Beilman and I were both working at Centerview Partners, a boutique investment bank based in New York City. We had our fair share of late nights at the office and “pls fix, thx” emails before Kyle went on to become CFO of Dave, a relatively under-the-radar startup at the time, and […]

Go to any café and open up your laptop to connect to Wi-Fi, and you’ll find yourself scrolling down a sea of options before you find the right network. Similarly, in enterprises and venues around the world, growth in wireless and mobile data usage is outpacing existing infrastructure’s capacity and coverage. And with the advent […]

Today, 6 River Systems announced that they are teaming up with Shopify to build the next-generation fulfillment network powered by robotics and AI. This represents a major milestone for the robotics industry that has seen few exits of this magnitude outside of Amazon’s acquisition of Kiva Systems in 2012. 6 River Systems (6 River) is […]

We are beyond thrilled to congratulate Health Catalyst on its debut as a publicly-traded company and want to honor their tremendous success to date. Health Catalyst started in 2008 with the vision to transform all healthcare decisions with data. Over the years, Health Catalyst has become a leader in healthcare data and analytics technology and […]

Having previously worked with Clarus Commerce (“Clarus”), we are thrilled to announce our new investment in the company and to partner once again with Tom Caporaso and the entire Clarus team. Clarus is a leading provider of premium loyalty programs for retailers and has continued to rapidly grow its customer base and partner network since […]

“The days are long but the years are short.” Sage advice for a parent managing life with young kids. I recently showed my daughter a time lapse photo, and she was captivated. It got me thinking, what is it about time lapse photos that makes them so mesmerizing? Well, they tell a story and take […]

I bought my first pair of Birdies in December 2016 and was immediately hooked. The distinctive pony hair black flat with faux shearling lining quickly became my go-to shoe at home and for running errands. They were comfortable and stylish – a rare combination for women’s shoes.   I also believe in co-founder Bianca Gates, […]

Today, we are proud to announce Norwest is leading Propel’s $18 million Series B funding round. The investment builds on the company’s previous $10 million Series A fundraise and brings Propel’s total capital raised to $28 million. Other investors, including Cloud Apps Capital Partners, Salesforce Ventures, and Signalfire, also participated in this round of funding. […]

With back-to-school in the works for many families, we’d like to share some key learnings from our time working with one of our favorite schools, The Learning Experience (TLE). Earlier this summer, Golden Gate Capital acquired TLE. We’re thrilled for their team and celebrate their success with them. TLE operates and franchises early childhood academies. […]

Today, the cloud is a primary driver of the digital economy, shaping the way that businesses produce, market and monetize their products and services. It’s quite a change from 10 years ago. Back then, most Fortune 500 companies would have balked at the notion of placing their most valuable information assets on a public cloud […]

Today, we announced a historic milestone in our firm’s history — the closing of Norwest Venture Partners XIV, a $1.5 billion fund and our largest to date. For more than five decades, we’ve invested in legendary disruptors that have defined and shaped many industries. We’re proud to have worked alongside such talented individuals and helped […]

Community, convenience and flexibility have never been so important in today’s market. No matter what industry you’re in, these three factors are driving new business models and delighting consumers in new ways. From subscription services to flexible workplaces, every day we’re seeing more consumers and businesses alike adopt the “as-a-service” approach to living and working. […]

For decades, programmable robots have served us in industrial manufacturing and car assembly. Bulky, stationary and limited in capabilities, the robotics sector lacked real robotic brain power. Fast forward to today, and we see a huge shift in robot sophistication. Today’s robots are smaller, faster, and less expensive. Developments in battery power, compute, and connectivity […]

How an Artist Created a 3D Technology Startup Most entrepreneurs have a unique moment of illumination that inspires and fuels his or her journey. For Modsy CEO Shanna Tellerman, the moment came during her undergraduate studies in Fine Arts at Carnegie Mellon University. It was where she realized she didn’t have to abandon her love […]

Today, I would like to announce our investment in analyticsMD, a company that is transforming hospital efficiency, safety, and patient outcomes through the use of sophisticated machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) technology, delivered in real time at the point of care. analyticsMD was founded by three amazing innovators with prior on-the-ground experience solving some […]

Omada Health: Leading the Digital Therapeutics Revolution Today, we’re proud to announce a new investment in the ground-breaking digital health company, Omada Health. The $48 million in Series C funding will be used to meet market demand for the company’s innovative online Prevent program—a program that effectively reduces the risk for obesity-released diseases such as […]

Today we are excited to share with you that we are leading a $38 million investment in Minted, an online crowdsourcing marketplace that connects consumers with the world’s best independent fine artists and designers. Minted was originally launched in 2008 as an online marketplace for high-end, custom holiday cards and wedding invitations with a unique […]