SANTA MONICA, Calif., Jan. 14, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- March Capital (formerly March Capital Partners) today announced the close of the March Capital Fund III, a $450M fund focused on enterprise software companies. With strong support from both existing and new investors, the fund is focused on supporting entrepreneurs developing innovative software and market-leading solutions in enterprise AI, industrial technology, cybersecurity, financial technology and next generation cloud infrastructure. The close of Fund III follows the success of March Capital Funds I and II, with over $1 billion in realized profits through investments in breakout enterprise companies including CrowdStrike, VeloCloud (acquired by VMWare), ASAPP, BillDesk, CarTrade, Earnin, Forter, SparkCognition, Uniphore and other portfolio companies.
"Building on the adoption of broadband, mobility, cloud, and now 5G coupled with edge computing, we will see unprecedented innovation in the next ten years, with yet to be imagined applications and a complete new network architecture to support it," said Sumant Mandal, March Capital Co-Managing Partner. "Going through the pandemic over the last year has shown that the adoption of new digital platforms is mission critical for businesses worldwide and has permanently changed human behavior. A decade of behavior change has happened in less than one year."
March Capital also today announced the March Capital Foundation, formalizing the firm's longstanding community engagement and amplifying its commitment to increase the opportunities in the innovation economy for broader and at-risk communities in Southern California. The Foundation's focus includes homelessness, community health, and inner-city youth advancement. Co-Managing Partner James Montgomery will spearhead this initiative.
"The March Capital team is passionate about helping exceptional entrepreneurs build companies that will have a positive impact on the world. With the close of Fund III and launch of the Foundation, we are able to double down on our commitment to drive positive change through the companies in which we invest and opportunities the innovation economy presents," said James Montgomery, Co-Managing Partner, March Capital. "We are grateful to our longstanding investment partners that continue to put their trust in March to identify and invest in the most visionary entrepreneurs and innovative solutions. We remain committed to doing the hard work necessary to unearth the next enterprise tech standouts and help them succeed."
March Capital raised Fund III at an unprecedented time of stay-at-home orders and isolation, requiring a new approach to engage and support the investment and entrepreneurial communities. These strategies included launching the Montgomery Summit Virtual Series, attracting a global audience through a series of virtual seminars, which will also be extended to the 2021 Montgomery Summit. While the March portfolio entered the pandemic in a position of strength given its enterprise focus, the firm immediately increased stress-testing across its portfolio to ensure continued stability, gaining further deep insights that led to follow-on investments in multiple portfolio companies (including ASAPP, CarTrade and Uniphore). March also made new investments in notable start-ups and 2020 Montgomery Summit presenting companies such as Unqork.
March Capital has 15 investment professionals and $1B+ AUM. Two-time entrepreneur Wes Nichols and India-based Rajan Mehra are new Partners for Fund III who join existing Partner Jed Leidheiser and Co-Managing Partner Gregory Milken, who leads the March Gaming investment fund.
Enterprise software entrepreneurs who would like to learn more about March Capital can go to marchcp.com for more information.
ADDITIONAL REPRESENTATIVE QUOTES:
"From its inception, March Capital has been ahead of the curve in identifying the immense potential of and opportunity around cloud software and platforms," said Can Elbi, member of the March LP Advisory Committee, and Chief Investment Officer, Nahmani Grunder & Cie. Ltd, one of the largest independent wealth managers in Switzerland. "March has clearly differentiated itself with its thoughtful and diligent approach to investing and its unique access to the most visionary entrepreneurs."
"I have invested alongside and with March Capital on a number of companies including CrowdStrike. Investors come in many flavors, March Capital is one that entrepreneurs really like," said Gerhard Watzinger, Chairman of CrowdStrike. "Jamie and Sumant are known as the go-to guys for those looking to scale market leading companies."
"Working with the partners of March Capital, it is very clear that they are long-term thinkers. focused on supporting the creation of very big companies. They know what they're doing, and more importantly, they are a pleasure to work with knowing that they always have my back," said Michael Reitblat, CEO of portfolio company Forter. "They are very well plugged-in to the market, and many times when I've called them with a challenge the company needed to solve, I got a very concrete connection or specific advice within just a few hours."
About March Capital
March Capital is a top-tier venture growth firm headquartered in Santa Monica, California and investing globally since 2014. March identifies entrepreneurs with a provocative vision to lead the future and later-stage companies poised for hyper-growth, then dares to go all in by leading rounds with deep conviction and concentration risk. With $1B+ in capital over 3 funds and across 30 market-leading technology companies, March accelerates the digital transformation of Cloud-based software, automation, AI & IT infrastructure. Our vision is to create a best-in-class technology investment platform by combining intense sector focus, patience, access to a global leadership network (including founding The Montgomery Summit), and high-impact portfolio engagement to inspire & accelerate extraordinary companies.
For more information on how March Capital is committed to partnering with exceptional entrepreneurs and teams to build great global technology companies, please visit www.marchcp.com
About March Capital Foundation
The March Capital Foundation allocates 1% of the profit of March Capital to support a select number of programs that provide at-risk groups and the broader community with access to the innovation economy. The focus of the Foundation is to address homelessness, hunger, and community health, and to expand engagement in innovation and entrepreneurship. March Capital views its community involvement similar to its engagement with its portfolio companies and dedicates significant leadership as well as resources to a concentrated number of programs. In 2020, support was provided to The People Concern, Venice Family Clinic, Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, LA Metropolitan Debate League, Coalition for Responsible Community Development, HBCU.vc, J. Paul Getty Education Programs, Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Claremont McKennna College, and other organizations.
Jamie Montgomery
Co-Founder & Managing Partner, March Capital
Jamie Montgomery is a Co-Founder and Managing Partner of March Capital. Prior, he was the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Montgomery & Co., a well-known Los Angeles-based investment bank where he advised and financed hundreds of leading technology companies over a 25-year period. He is also the Founder of The Montgomery Summit, an annual technology conference that attracts over 1,000 global entrepreneurs, investors, and corporate executives to Santa Monica.
Jamie currently serves on the Board of Directors of ASAPP, Descartes Labs, Forter, and FogHorn, and is a Board Observer at Earnin, He focuses on identifying disruptive technology companies and providing capital at a critical inflection point. Jamie has a track record of successful exits including the IPO of Magnite and the sale of TeleSign to BICS. Additionally, Jamie was a Board Observer at CrowdStrike and priced two of the rounds prior to its IPO.
Jamie actively supports programs to innovation and entrepreneurship at the University of California, San Diego, Claremont McKenna College, the University of Southern California, and Chapman University. Jamie received his M.A. in Economics from the University of Cambridge and a B.A. from the University of California, San Diego. Jamie is also the Vice Chair of the $3B capital campaign for University of California, San Diego.
Current Investments: ASAPP, Descartes Labs, Earnin, ForgHorn, Forter
Sumant Mandal
Co-Founder & Managing Partner, March Capital
Sumant is a Co-Founder & Managing Partner of March Capital. Sumant leads investments in cloud driven enterprise platforms, cloud infrastructure, AI/ML, and network infrastructure as well as companies supporting the Indian market. He currently serves on the boards of numerous market-leading companies, including BillDesk, CarTrade, SparkCognition, and Uniphore.
In his nearly two decades of venture capital, Sumant has generated multiple meaningful exits in companies that he has either incubated or been the first institutional investor. His exits include: VeloCloud Networks (acquired by VMWare), Magnite, Kosei (acquired by Pinterest), Appcito (acquired by A10 Networks), Deep Forest Media (acquired by Rakuten), Kazeon Systems (acquired by EMC), Mimosa Systems (acquired by Iron Mountain), Ankeena Networks (acquired by Juniper), Cetas (acquired by VMware), Apture (acquired by Google), and Perspica Systems (acquired by Cisco).
Additionally, Sumant is co-founder of two leading technology incubators in the San Francisco Bay Area: The Hive, focused on AI and Blockchain driven companies, and The Fabric, focused on cloud, IoT, and network infrastructure companies. He has been part of incubating more than 25 companies throughout his career. In 2000, Sumant joined Clearstone Venture Partners, where he went on to become a Managing Director four years later. Prior to Clearstone, Sumant spent more than eight years as an entrepreneur, starting companies in both India and the United States.
Sumant has an M.B.A. from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Michigan State University. He is a Charter Member of TiE.
Current Investments: BillDesk, CarTrade, SparkCognition, Uniphore, Xage
Wes Nichols
Partner, March Capital
Wes Nichols is a Partner at March Capital, as well as a board advisor to several public and private company CEOs. A serial software entrepreneur, Wes most recently was Co-Founder and CEO of MarketShare (acquired by Neustar), a global analytics software firm that is now the industry standard for resource allocation and budget planning for a majority of the world's multinationals.
Wes is passionate about supporting entrepreneurs through their often-challenging journey of creating world-class companies. Wes is focused on investing in cloud-based enterprise solutions that enable data-driven decision-making and automation for companies, including platforms for analytics, AI/ML, and data management. Wes is also the author of one of the most-read Harvard Business Review articles, Analytics 2.0, on next-generation analytics and automation, with a follow-up article recently completed.
Board roles include ActionIQ, Neustar, Persado, Adverity and Airship, as well as public company TrueCar and Strategic Advisor to the leadership at Snap Inc.
Wes graduated from Randolph-Macon College and The Johns Hopkins University, with degrees in Psychology and Business, respectively, and graduated from the President's Program in Leadership (PPL) at the Harvard Business School. Wes is an active member in Young Presidents Organization (YPO), the 2016 winner of the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award and Technology Pioneer nominee by the World Economic Forum (WEF).
Current Investments: ActionIQ
Rajan Mehra
Partner, March Capital
Rajan is a Partner at March Capital, advising the firm on its Indian investments.
He has over two decades of operating & investing experience in digital businesses, most recently as co-founding MD of Nirvana Venture Advisors, where he led investments in emerging consumer and enterprise tech businesses in India. Rajan commenced his investing career soon after his stint as Country Head for eBay in India. He has since successfully invested in and been a Board Member of leading Indian digital companies including BillDesk, Cartrade, Shiprocket & Unbxd.
Rajan is attracted to companies building world class software products for global enterprises, SMB's and the developer community. India's technology talent and developer community has grown remarkably in the last decade, and Rajan is looking forward to working with Indian founders who will leverage this energy to take their products to the world. He is also excited to partner with founders who are building products that reduce friction and to help in building the infrastructure for India's rapidly growing internet GDP.
Rajan has an M.B.A. from the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia, and a B.Com from Sydenham College at the University of Mumbai.
Current Investments: BillDesk, CarTrade
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SOURCE March Capital
