Highland Capital Partners Launches $300 Million Highland Consumer Fund

LEXINGTON, Mass. and MENLO PARK, Calif., July 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Highland Capital Partners, a leading venture capital firm, today announced the closing of Highland Consumer Fund I. The $300 million Fund will focus exclusively on investment opportunities in consumer-facing enterprises. In conjunction with the closing, Tom Stemberg and Ted Philip will lead the Fund as Managing General Partners.

"Tom and Ted make an incredibly powerful team," stated Dan Nova, Managing General Partner with Highland Capital Partners. "Tom's a retail legend who constantly seeks opportunities for reinventing the industry. Ted complements with rigorous business discipline and diverse experience across consumer products and services companies. Together they offer a truly unique combination for entrepreneurs and management teams looking to take their organizations to the next level."

The Highland Consumer Fund will specialize in consumer products, services and retail investment opportunities in growth-focused companies with proven business models operating in attractive markets. The Fund brings together an investment team with extensive experience founding, growing, operating and investing in successful consumer companies. It will also offer portfolio companies a unique value proposition through the hands-on guidance and active involvement of four consumer domain experts. Each of these experts specializes in key areas that virtually every consumer company finds challenging: IT Systems, Marketing, Merchandising and Real Estate.

Stemberg pioneered the office superstore industry when he co-founded Staples in 1986. As CEO, he propelled Staples' business growth through store expansion programs, an office products delivery business, a growing international presence, and e-commerce operations, ultimately creating an industry-leading company with $18 billion in sales. Since joining Highland in early 2005, the industry veteran has led a number of new investments in consumer-focused companies. In addition, he currently serves on a number of company boards, including CarMax, lululemon athletica, PETsMART and The NASDAQ Stock Market.

"We're excited to launch a new Fund committed to assisting entrepreneurs in building the next generation of exceptional consumer-facing enterprises," stated Tom Stemberg. "Since the technology boom of the late 1990's, the consumer market has been underserved by the venture capital community. Through a focused approach and strategy, we look to address that opportunity immediately."

Stemberg is teaming with Ted Philip in leading the Fund. During his 20- year career, Philip has been involved with a variety of consumer products and services businesses, including media & entertainment (Disney, Lycos), children and family products (Hasbro), and recreation/lifestyle products (Bombardier Recreational Products). At Lycos, Philip was a founding member of the team, serving at various times as the President, COO and CFO. He helped take the company from a start-up venture with less than $2 million in funding to an international public company with operations in 42 countries.

Joining Stemberg and Philip as Partners in the Fund will be John Burns and Tom Guilfoile. Burns has seven years experience as an investor with Highland Capital Partners and Summit Partners, and spent five years earlier in his career with Merrill Lynch. Guilfoile has a 20-year career as an entrepreneur, finance and operations executive in such organizations as Decision Matrix Group, Lycos and Ernst & Young. Dan Nova will serve as Chairman of the Fund's Investment Committee.

"The consumer market is large and attractive, with active IPO and M&A markets providing compelling exit opportunities for portfolio companies." said Ted Philip. "A dedicated Fund will enable us to take advantage of the significant volume of promising investment opportunities in the consumer sector and commit the capital required to become a leading investor in the space."

The Highland Consumer Fund will operate out of Highland's Lexington, Massachusetts office.

About Highland Capital Partners

Highland Capital Partners was founded with the mission of helping great people build great companies. Since its inception in 1988, the firm has taken a sector-focused approach to investing in exceptional communications, consumer, digital media, healthcare and information technology companies. With $3 billion of committed capital, Highland has invested in and worked to create such firms as Altiga Networks, Ask Jeeves, Avid Technology, Be Free, CheckFree, Conor Medsystems, Continental Cable, EXACT Sciences, Helicos BioSciences, Lycos, MapQuest, Ocular Networks, Odyssey Healthcare, Starent Networks, Sybase, Telica, VistaPrint and WebLine Communications. For more information, visit Highland's web site at http://www.hcp.com/.