MENLO PARK, CA--(Marketwired - Jul 3, 2013) -Veteran venture capital investors Gaurav Garg and Peter Wagner today launched Wing Venture Partners, a new Silicon Valley firm designed specifically to help build consequential business technology companies in Cloud, Mobile and Data. The fund will be focused exclusively on early stage opportunities with the potential to define important new categories at the intersection of these dynamic forces, empowering entrepreneurs with the capital and strategic assistance to build market-leading companies.
With financial backing from sophisticated institutional investors including leading universities and foundations, as well as additional capital from the Founding Partners, Wing will typically invest in the range of $8 to $10 million over the life of a portfolio company. The fund will also make smaller, even earlier stage seed investments. Current Wing portfolio companies include emerging innovators Cumulus Networks, CloudPhysics, Instart Logic, Platfora and Shape Security, as well as recognized category definers FireEye, Mobile Iron and Nimble Storage.
"There is a paradigm shift underway: the Cloud, Mobile and Data movements are working together to transform every aspect of how businesses use technology," said Peter Wagner, Founding Partner at Wing. "Incumbents will be disrupted, and new market leaders will emerge. Wing is purpose-built to help the most talented entrepreneurs build these next generation leaders."
"We're passionate about providing both strategic value based on our vast experience building companies and the means for entrepreneurs to forge ahead with groundbreaking ideas," said Gaurav Garg, Founding Partner at Wing. "Our mission is to put together a concentrated portfolio of truly meaningful companies, and we have already started investing in those we believe are poised to dominate the new IT paradigm."
The Wing team draws on decades of industry experience and has extensive knowledge in the business technology domain. Founding Partner Gaurav Garg was a Venture Partner at Sequoia Capital for ten years, where he helped build industry leaders such as Ruckus Wireless, Aruba Networks, FireEye, Mobile Iron, Jasper Wireless, RingCentral, Jawbone and NetScaler. Prior to Sequoia, Gaurav founded Redback Networks, a prominent Internet infrastructure company publicly listed 1999-2007, and eventually acquired by Ericsson. Founding Partner Peter Wagner was previously Managing Partner at Accel Partners, where he spent fifteen years leading investments in dozens of early stage companies, twelve of which completed IPOs while many others were successfully acquired. Companies Peter helped finance and build while at Accel include Arrowpoint Communications, Fusion-io, Infinera, Nimble Storage, Northpoint Communications, OPOWER, Redback Networks (where he and Gaurav first met), Riverbed Technology and Tellium. Before his venture capital career, Peter was a Product Line Manager at Silicon Graphics.
About Wing
Wing is a Silicon Valley venture capital firm focused exclusively on early stage business technology opportunities. Founded by Gaurav Garg and Peter Wagner, formerly of Sequoia Capital and Accel Partners respectively, Wing is designed to be the ideal partner for talented entrepreneurs seeking to build next generation industry leading companies. Current Wing portfolio companies include CloudPhysics, Cumulus Networks, FireEye, Instart Logic, Mobile Iron, Nimble Storage, Platfora and Shape Security.
