Toba Capital

Toba Capital is a venture capital firm based in Newport Beach, California. It was founded in late 2012 by Vinny Smith, former CEO of Quest Software. The company makes seed- and late-round investments in software and technology services companies.[1] It is the largest venture capital firm in Orange County, with more than US$1 billion invested in about 75 companies.[2]

Toba Capital
Private
FoundedNewport Beach, California, United States (2012)
FounderVinny Smith
HeadquartersNewport Beach, CA
Key people
Vinny Smith, Partner
ProductsVenture capital for software and technology services startup companies
Number of employees
15
Websitewww.tobacapital.com

The company also has an office in San Francisco.

History

Toba Capital was founded in late 2012 by software executive and venture capitalist Vinny Smith, using some of the US$850 million in funds he reportedly received from the sale of his share of Quest Software to Dell.[3] The company name comes from the Toba Eruption, a volcanic supereruption theorized to have caused a global winter that supposedly caused a genetic bottleneck in humans.[4] The company chose a stylized volcano for its logo.[4]

In its first year, the company reportedly invested about US$150 million in start up software companies.[4]

In 2013, Dell Computer sold its stake in SaaS archiving company Smarsh to Toba Capital.[5]

In February 2015, the company invested US$4M in Irvine based True Drinks, Inc. a manufacturer of zero sugar flavored water products.[6] In August, Toba Capital partnered with Information technology company Pacific Controls to invest US$20M in open source technology provider WSO2.[7] In November, the company invested US$10M in healthcare startup PatientPop.[8] In December, the company joined tech investor Peter Thiel in a second round of funding for London-based freelance technology platform developer Lystable.[9]

In July 2016, the company invested in Provo, Utah-based software maker Grow.com, reportedly Toba's first investment outside of California.[10][11] In September 2016, the company was part of a US$100 million funding round for agriculture startup Indigo Agriculture, reported at the time to be the largest private equity deal in the growing agriculture technology business sector.[12]

In March 2017, one of Toba's holdings, software company Alteryx, went public, and as of August 2018 had a market capitalization of US$2.6 billion.[1] In May, the company also exited its position in Codenvy, a developer of the Eclipse Che development platform, by selling to Linux developer RedHat for undisclosed terms.[13]

In February 2018, the company invested US$16M in reporting and analytics dashboard software developer Grow.com, and closed a US$5.2M series B funding round with information security company Infocyte.[14][15] In June, the company announced a US$30M investment in contracts analytics firm Seal Software.[16] In August, Toba Capital led a US$6.4M funding round for convenience store analytics provider Skupos.[17]

Investments

As of August 2018, the company reported over US$1 billion invested in about 75 companies.[2]

Investments as of December 2019 include Conversica, Deliveroo, FloQast, Paxata, Quorum, Robinhood, Sauce Labs, ShiftMobility, StellaService, Strivacity, Transifex, and WSO2.[18]

Prior investments include Alteryx,[19] Bright,[20] ClearSlide,[18] Cloudant,[21] Codenvy, JasperSoft, MobileIron,[18] SecureAuth,[19] and SmartBear.[18]

References
  1. "Top VC Firms Invest 47% More in Local Companies". ocbj.com. 2017-06-05. Retrieved 2018-08-08.(subscription required)
  2. "Quest Vet Dickson Unretires For New Enterprise". ocbj.com. 2018-08-06. Retrieved 2018-08-07.(subscription required)
  3. "Smith moves on after grueling battle with Dell". Orange County Register. 2013-05-24. Retrieved 2016-12-06.
  4. "With Toba Capital, Vinny Smith suddenly emerges as a player in the venture industry". San Jose Mercury News. 2013-03-04. Retrieved 2016-12-06.
  5. Rogoway, Mike (2013-11-05). "Dell Sells its Majority Stake in Smarsh to Investment Fund Toba Capital". The Oregonian. Retrieved 2018-07-16.
  6. "Toba Puts $4M into Kids' Drink Maker". ocbj.com. 2015-02-24. Retrieved 2018-07-29.(subscription required)
  7. "Toba Backs Software Startup". ocbj.com. 2015-11-24. Retrieved 2018-07-29.(subscription required)
  8. "PatientPop Picks Up $10M". socaltech.com. 2015-08-13. Retrieved 2018-08-02.
  9. "Tech investor Peter Thiel ups stake in Lystable". telegraph.co.uk. 2018-08-15. Retrieved 2018-08-10.
  10. "Toba in $11M Series A Round". ocbj.com. 2016-07-15. Retrieved 2018-07-16.(subscription required)
  11. "Grow Raises $11M Series A Round, Funding Poetry Is Now In Session". beehivestartups.com. 2016-07-27. Retrieved 2018-07-16.
  12. "On Vinny's Table: Impact Investing". ocbj.com. 2016-08-01. Retrieved 2018-08-06.(subscription required)
  13. "Vinny Smith's Toba Capital Gets Exit At Codenvy". socaltech.com. 2017-05-25. Retrieved 2018-07-16.
  14. "Toba Capital Backs Grow.com In $16M In Funding". socaltech.com. 2018-02-05. Retrieved 2018-07-29.
  15. "CRN Exclusive: Threat Hunting Startup Infocyte Lands Ex-SonicWall Top Exec As CEO, Launches Channel Blitz". crn.com. 2018-02-09. Retrieved 2018-07-30.
  16. "Seal Software Secures $30 Million in Latest AI Contract Market Investment". law.com. 2018-06-25. Retrieved 2018-07-30.
  17. "Skupos Raises $6.4 Million to Accelerate C-Store Penetration". cspdailynews.com. 2018-08-06. Retrieved 2018-08-13.
  18. "Toba Capital". Toba Capital. Retrieved 2019-02-08.
  19. "Vinny Smith's VC firm Backs OC Software Company". ocbj.com. 2013-10-09. Retrieved 2018-07-16.(subscription required)
  20. "LinkedIn Snatches Up Data Savvy Job Search Startup Bright.com For $120M, In Its Largest Acquisition To Date". techcrunch.com. 2014-02-06. Retrieved 2018-07-16.
  21. "Cloudant raises $12m in Series B funding". bostonglobe.com. 2013-05-14. Retrieved 2018-07-16.
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