Giant VC Firm Canaan Partners Opens NY Office

admin — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 21:58:30 -0400

Canaan Partners -- a multibillion-dollar VC firm with offices in Silicon Valley, Israel and India -- has opened a new office in New York.

"We've been investing in New York City since 1997 when we first backed DoubleClick. We continue to invest actively in this area, with nine new investments in the past several years," Warren Lee, venture partner at Canaan and co-director of the firm's New York office, said in a press release.

Canaan is currently invested in New York startups blip.tv and Tremor Media. Canaan was a backer of DoubleClick, the ad network which sold to Google in 2008 for $3.1 billion -- New York's largest exit to date.

"We are very impressed with the quality and experience of New York entrepreneurs," continued Lee. "We are convinced that New York will become an increasingly important center for innovation in sectors such as advertising, commerce, media, retail, and financial services."

Bonus perk for Canaan startups: Their office will feature a "digital living room" with an Xbox Kinect360, powered by 3D-sensing technology from Canaan portfolio company PrimeSense, and a GoogleTV, featuring web video content from Canaan portfolio company blip.tv.

Twitter Opens Office In New York, Sort Of

admin — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 12:36:58 -0400

Twitter is increasingly billing itself as a media company, so the news that they were opening a Twitter office in New York made perfect sense. Read Write Web's Marshall Kilpatrick broke the story last night, but it turned out to be only partly true.

It sounded like the East Coast digs weren't quite as fancy as Twitter staff are used to. "There is something charming about a bare office space and a whole team working within earshot," tweeted Jessica Verrlli, Twitter's lead for corporate development.

This morning came an update. This is not in fact a Twitter office in New York, just a temporary work space for the folks Twitter hired here. Still, it's a clear sign the company has a growing presence in NYC.

The new Twitter layout, released last week, put an emphasis on transforming the site from a stream of short text messages to a broader space for consuming full articles and video. This extra real estate is sure to be rich territory for advertising as well.

"A lot of Silicon Valley companies are realizing the growing need for media and advertising savvy," says Somak Chattopadhyay, a local VC veteran and principle at Greenhill SAVP specializing in technology. "No place can offer that better than New York."

bpopper@observer.com

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Giant VC Firm Canaan Partners Opens NY Office

Twitter Opens Office In New York, Sort Of