Prior Investments

U. S. Robotics was one of the first companies to offer high-speed dialup modems for the personal computing market. Founded in classic tech start-up fashion in an Illinois garage in 1976, U. S. Robotics founders first produced acoustic couplers. From these entrepreneurial beginnings, the company under the leadership of Casey Cowell, emerged as the world leader in dial-up modem technology. Jonathan Zakin joined the company when it had sales of $18 million and was one of the Company’ three key principals. After managing sales and marketing, Jonathan lead the acquisitions team in the purchase of Palm Computing, Megahertz, Scorpios and a number of others as well as being the lead negotiator on the 3 Com transaction which resulted in the sale of U. S. Robotics to 3Com for approximately $8 billion, at the time the largest networking acquisition in American business history.

Nanophase Technologies is an industry-leading nanocrystalline materials innovator and manufacturer with an integrated family of nanomaterial technologies that were originally developed at Argonne National Laboratory. The company was initially formed by Arch Development Corporation and Mr. Batterson was an early investor and served as Chairman of the Board for nine years. Again, he was instrumental in raising significant capital from high net worth accredited investors for the company. Nanophase remains one of the few public companies creating nanomaterials in commercial quality and quantity. Nanomaterials are considered by many leading industry experts to be the future of materials technology.

Health Magazine (formerly In Health) is America’s most trusted health and wellness magazine, providing women with information and inspiration on how to live a healthier, happier life. Health has been one of the most successful magazines in the United States, and one of the most successful ever financed by venture capital investors. Southern Progress Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Time/Warner publishes the magazine, which launched in 1987 and was acquired by Time/Warner. It currently has a circulation of over 1 million and over 6 million readers. Len Batterson sourced the investment, helped assemble the initial venture capital investment group, and provided critical guidance until its eventual sale.

America Online (AOL) was an early Internet pioneer and leading provider of online services to consumers in the United States. The company was originally organized as Quantum Computer Services, a successor venture capital backed company to Control Video Corporation. Mr. Batterson played a crucial role in the successful transfer of technology from Control Video and the startup of Quantum, providing turnaround management, week-to-week capital funding, and other integral support as the company pivoted into America Online. As an initial investor in the firm, he was instrumental in recruiting the management team, including James Kimsey and Steve Case, that built AOL into the number one online service provider, and subsequently one of the largest multi-media firms in the world after its merger with Time/Warner.

Proxim Wireless is a leading provider of high performance wireless systems that deliver the quadruple play of data, voice, video, and mobility. Enterprises, service providers, carriers, government entities, educational institutions, healthcare organizations, municipalities and other organizations that need high-performance, secure and scalable broadband wireless solutions use Proxim’s wireless solution. The company has 235,000 customers around the world and 1.8 million units deployed in the field. Proxim was created by BVC affiliate Jonathan Zakin and New York private equity firm, Ripplewood Holdings. During the time Jonathan was Chairman, President and CEO of the company Proxim grew from approximately $50 million in revenue to $250 million.

Technology transfer at the University of Chicago started through ARCH Development Corporation, which was founded in 1986 as a wholly owned not-for-profit affiliate of the University charged with handling all of the University’s intellectual property and technology commercialization matters. This agreement also extended to Argonne National Laboratory, which the University of Chicago runs for the U.S. Department of Energy.

Beyond.com was originally founded in 1994 as a traditional online mail-order catalog under the name Cybersource. The company became a leading e-commerce services provider, building and managing online retail sites for third-party businesses, while also selling software and computer related products in the government, corporate and consumer markets. At inception, the company located its headquarters in a small suite over a barbershop in Menlo Park, California. In 1997, Beyond.com spun off its Internet operations into a new company, Cybersource, and created Software.net Corporation for the sole purpose of selling software online. Beyond.com and Cybersource were both taken public in highly successful IPOs, one of the few times that a venture capital investment resulted in two successful IPOs. Batterson Venture Partners investment in Beyond.com returned 20.9 times the investment within two years.

Batterson Johnson and Wang and two other venture capital firms formed Larimer Bancorporation in 1991 with the purchase of the First Interstate Bank of Fort Collins, Colorado. The bank had $300 million in assets and was a subsidiary of First Interstate Bancorp, a holding company with 67 owned and affiliated banks. The acquisition price was particularly attractive at the time compared with other Colorado bank acquisitions, following new state legislation permitting interstate banking. The strong bank management team continued to improve earnings, resulting in the sale of the bank in 1993 at a significant gain.

Cybersource is a payment management company providing a complete portfolio of services that simplify and automate payment operations. Customers use the Cybersource and Authorize.Net brand solutions to process online payments, streamline fraud management, and simplify payment security. The company began developing electronic payment and credit card fraud detection technology in 1996, long before the e-commerce industry became a major business opportunity. In 2007, Cybersource acquired the leading U. S. small business payment services provider, Authorize.Net, expanding the market to cover businesses ranging from the smallest sole proprietorships to the largest global brands. After an early highly successful initial public offering in 2010 CyberSource was acquired by and operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of Visa Inc. for approximately $2 billion. Today, over 370,00 businesses worldwide use CyberSource solutions.