Celebrating the Advanced BioHealing Inc. Exit

It’s been an extraordinary May for Canaan Partners. Our portfolio company Advanced BioHealing (ABH) was acquired by Shire for $750M in an all cash deal just before they were slated to list on public markets. This was a fantastic outcome for the ABH team and for Canaan. ABH was an early investment by Canaan VII raised in 2005, and we were ABH’s largest shareholder.

We’re particularly proud of our success with ABH because Canaan’s team is substantially responsible for guiding ABH to this moment. Stephen Bloch, a general partner at Canaan, built ABH nearly from scratch several years ago. As executive chairman, Steve led ABH to buy Dermagraft, ABH’s anchor product in a corporate divestiture auction.  Steve hired Kevin Rakin, (a former portfolio CEO and Entrepreneur in Residence with Canaan) to build up the company from three initial employees.  The core management team had previously worked with many of Canaan’s former healthcare portfolio companies.  The company, which now has 400 employees, is headquartered near Canaan’s Westport, CT office with manufacturing operations in La Jolla, CA.

We also had exciting feedback from during the IPO road show — the ABH team did a marvelous job.  ABH was set to price and there was every indication this would have been one of the best healthcare IPOs in years.  ABH’s revenue growth and profits are rarely seen in new public issues in healthcare (or in many technology companies either right now); all reasons for driving Shire’s interest in ABH.

Canaan remains committed to finding great ideas and great people, and doing everything possible to build great companies.

- Alok Mittal, MD, Canaan India

Portfolio News

BharatMatrimony the leading online matchmaking site, has announced the launch of its new wedding gifts portal, MatrimonyGifts.com, complementing its first offering. With this move, it is looking to capitalize on the growing market for gifts items in India.

Naaptol the Indian online shopping store, is planning to foray into TV. They already have partnerships with multiple channels on hourly slots and are now looking at launching a 24-hour channel. Naaptol has also just launched an Android app that will allow users to view product information on their smartphones.

Zuberance a leading US-based social media marketing agency, reveals that companies who engage and then reward their brand advocates, are seeing a 10 fold increase in ROI in media and sales value.

Blip.tv a Next-generation television network which aims to make independent Web shows sustainable, has signed a distribution deal With Fred, iJustine and other collective video producers.

Canaan In News

The Economic Times, captures the thoughts of Rahul Khanna, MD, Canaan India on the Microsoft takeover of Skype.

The Economic Times, captures the thoughts of Alok Mittal, MD, Canaan India, on the trends in the VC industry in India.

Events

Rahul Khanna, MD, Canaan India, participated at Startup Garage, an event for startups to develop their business ideas, where he mentored groups of nascent entrepreneurs.