Sapphire Ventures, a leading venture capital firm with $2.5 billion under management that invests in emerging growth-stage companies and early-stage venture funds, today announced that it has hired Paul Levine as partner. In this role, Paul will lead direct investments for the firm and help expand its consumer investing footprint.
Paul joins Sapphire’s direct investment team, which partners with extraordinary entrepreneurs to help them build companies of consequence through an active, collaborative approach. He will focus on expanding the consumer investments portfolio*, which includes investments in 23andMe, DocuSign, Fitbit, LinkedIn (acquired by Microsoft), Paytm, Sun Basket, Ticketfly (acquired by Pandora) and TransferWise. Paul will also invest in high-growth marketplace, fintech and real estate technology companies.
“We are delighted to welcome Paul to our team. He’ll play a critical role in leading new investments for the firm and broadening our consumer technology practice,” said Nino Marakovic, CEO and managing director at Sapphire Ventures. “Beyond capital, we deliver high value expertise to our portfolio, and Paul’s track record of building and scaling consumer companies is exceptional. He will no doubt leverage his unique experience and perspective to help us both grow our portfolio and help our companies scale successfully.”
Prior to joining Sapphire Ventures, Paul held executive leadership roles at E*TRADE, Yahoo! (acquired by Verizon), Trulia and Zillow Group. Most recently, as Trulia’s president and COO, Paul helped lead Trulia’s transformation from a private 100-person company with $20 million in revenue, to a successful standalone public company, to its eventual merger with Zillow Group to create a company with more than 3,000 employees, $1 billion in revenue and $10 billion in market capitalization.
“Joining Sapphire Ventures is an exciting next step in my career, as I utilize my experience building and scaling consumer companies to help Sapphire’s existing portfolio and lead new investments for the firm,” said Levine. “What really drew me to Sapphire is the firm’s outstanding track record, combined with the talented team and strong culture that the firm has built. I’m thrilled to be joining the Sapphire team and can’t wait to further our mission of helping the next generation of entrepreneurs build category-defining businesses.”
Since 2011, Sapphire Ventures has seen 54 of its companies exit the portfolio, including 11 exits in the last 18 months – Alfresco (acquired by THL Partners), Alteryx, BlackDuck (acquired by Synopsys), Cyphort (acquired by Juniper Networks), DocuSign, Inkling (acquired by Marlin Equity Partners), Lithium (acquired by Vista), MuleSoft (acquired by Salesforce), Newgen Software, SAVO (acquired by Seismic) and Socrata (acquired by Tyler Technologies). To learn more about Sapphire Ventures, please visit www.sapphireventures.com.
About Sapphire Ventures
Sapphire Ventures is a venture capital firm focused on helping innovative technology companies become global category leaders. Leveraging nearly two decades of experience and an extensive global enterprise network, Sapphire Ventures invests capital, resources and expertise to enable its portfolio companies to scale rapidly. Whether entrepreneurs sell to businesses, consumers or both, Sapphire Ventures offers a powerful platform for business development and operational excellence to help them accelerate growth. With $2.5 billion under management via direct growth investments and early-stage fund investments, Sapphire Ventures is positioned to elevate companies to the global stage.
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