Thursday, September 25, 2008

Venrock guides $8M round for AppNexus

By Mass High Tech staff

Venrock has led an $8 million Series B round of financing for AppNexus Inc., according to the company.

New York-based AppNexus, a provider of enterprise-class cloud computing solutions, also named Venrock general partner Mike Tyrrell to its board of directors, officials said.

Venrock, which operates an office in Cambridge, is a venture capital firm founded in 1969 by the Rockefeller family. AppNexus’ other investors include Waltham-based Kodiak Venture Partners, Khosla Ventures, First Round Capital, Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz and Ron Conway.

AppNexus, which enables businesses to build enterprise production infrastructure, will use the funding to support product development as well as sales and marketing efforts, officials said.

Former Right Media executives Brian O’Kelley and Mike Nolet launched AppNexus in 2007 to make it easier for businesses of any size to set up secure, redundant and efficient production-ready datacenters. The company now claims as customers 40 enterprises, including several Global 1000 firms.

Venrock, which also operates offices in Palo Alto, Calif., and New York, has invested $2.2 billion in 417 companies resulting in 124 initial public offerings, firm officials said.

Last year, Venrock dropped the “Associates” from its name with the closing of a $600 million fund. The firm typically invests 30 percent of its funds in the life sciences. Seed investments range from $250,000 to $750,000, with early stage fundings ranging from $4 million to $7 million. Investments target companies operating in technology, health care and energy sectors.