Clearstone Venture Partners is an independent venture capital firm with offices in Santa Monica and Menlo Park, California.
Founded by Bill Elkus in 1998, Clearstone has rapidly emerged as a leading venture capital provider to technology innovators, from a standing start in 1998. Just since then, we have grown from a 2 person office in Pasadena, California, to a multi-office firm with about 20 people and over $650 million of committed capital. A leader in early stage venture financing, Clearstone works closely with high-potential technology companies to help them become leaders in their industries. We have invested in dozens of innovative technology companies over three funds to date. Our investment team is comprised of a mix of finance and operating professionals with extensive experience building companies, backed up by research and administrative staff.
Clearstone Fund I, raised in 1998, had great success building emerging companies, outperforming most veteran venture firms. Clearstone Fund II, includes a stable of companies that are emerging as leaders in their respective markets. Begun as a vehicle for investing in opportunities created by the maturation of the Internet and the World Wide Web, Clearstone achieved some of the best results in Internet business model investing, including successful outcomes for eToys, Overture, PayPal, United Online, MP3.com, Jump and eMusic. Over the past 5 years, our portfolio has broadened to include investments in enterprise computing (including software applications, infrastructure, storage and communications), wireless technologies, photonics for optical networking, chips and digital services. We have more than two dozen active companies in our portfolio today.
Clearstone's Fund III closed in April 2005 and our investment pace is brisk. This fund includes our first investment initiatives outside the US, in India. Clearstone's limited partners include the investment affiliates of The State of California, JP Morgan, The University of California, The State of Michigan, The State of Pennsylvania, The University of Pittsburgh, Moore Capital and other leading institutional investors. To further enhance the network, we have also accepted investments from a group of successful entrepreneurs and senior executives from leading technology companies.
