2020 Year in Review

As we reflect on the events of last year, we are more grateful than ever for the trust placed in us by our Limited Partners, underlying venture managers, portfolio companies and employees. Never has our mission to provide outsized returns to our investors through support of the global innovation economy been more important. Amid the economic, health and societal adversity faced by so many, we continue to believe that venture-backed businesses will enable our path forward by generating critical technologies, healthcare innovation, and job and value creation for all.

While 2020 was one of the most chaotic years in recent history, in the words of Sun Tzu, the famous Chinese General and philosopher, “in the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity,” and there was tremendous opportunity for the innovation economy to accelerate and thrive. The Greenspring venture platform was able to capitalize on these dynamics based on our investment strategy, our focus and doubling down on what got us here: team, strategy, process, technology and the ability to deliver value outside of capital. We are pleased to share some of our accomplishments from the year.

We committed and invested $1.8 billion across 46 venture managers and 74 companies on a direct and secondary basis. Our portfolio experienced 37 public listings and 66 M&A events over the year on a direct and indirect basis. 

INVESTMENT IN PEOPLE

We continued to hire best-in-class employees across our Firm, bringing our total head count to over 125, roughly half of whom are focused on investment management and research. We are particularly proud to have created 2.3 million jobs since inception as a result of our investment in ~8,000 companies, an increase of over 373k jobs year over year.

On the personnel front, there are two Partner promotions we’re thrilled to highlight. First, we are excited to announce that Lindsay Redfield was promoted to General Partner. Lindsay has been instrumental in building our financial operations and process development and leads Greenspring’s business intelligence, middle office fund management, operational due diligence and ESG reporting teams. Stepping into Lindsay’s previous role as Chief Financial Officer is Carrie McIntyre, who joins us from Interstate Hotels & Resorts, one of the largest global independent hotel companies, where she worked for over 18 years and was Chief Financial Officer, leading the finance and accounting teams in both private equity and public company structures. Second, we are pleased to announce that Adair Newhall has been promoted to Partner. Adair has contributed significantly across Greenspring, but his leadership in our healthcare investment practice and our Portfolio Impact Program has been crucial to our success.

We continue to cultivate our talent internally, making a handful of additional promotions over the course of the year, as well as adding meaningfully to our headcount across investment management and research, finance, accounting and investor relations and legal, compliance and support.

STRATEGIC VALUE ADD

Central to our culture is our belief in the importance of contributing to each of our relationships, and we have formalized a Portfolio Impact Program to add value to existing and prospective managers and portfolio companies through strategic connections, including introductions to corporate partners who represent potential customers, partners or acquirers, qualified deal introductions and other introductions to the Firm’s Limited Partners. From helping our portfolio companies navigate COVID relief packages, to helping the companies find customers, partners, executive hires or financiers in very uncertain times, Portfolio Impact is an area we continued to double down on in 2020. Overall, we supported our portfolio through 385 prospective customer introductions, 100+ Limited Partner introductions, 40+ talent introductions, nearly 60 strategic partner introductions and 100+ vetted dealflow referrals. We will continue our focus on these services in 2021 and are excited to announce that we plan to expand the team further by adding a Vice President and Analyst this year.

With the rollout of the COVID vaccines already well underway, we are feeling optimistic about recovery and growth and are excited for the role venture capital can play in catalyzing it. As the year unfolds, we look forward to remaining connected and hope to have the opportunity to be together in person again soon with our Limited Partners, underlying venture managers, portfolio companies and employees.