Roger Ehrenberg ’93BUS, founder and Managing Partner of IA Ventures, believes that their success stems from very specific factors that developed over the six years of the venture’s inception. These include focus, an expert and passionate team, a well-articulated investment approach, extensive networking, branding, dedication to reputation building, and utilizing trusted recommendations.
IAVentures is a seed stage venture firm which invests in data-intensive businesses in advertising technology, financial technology and digital media. They look to invest in companies that seek competitive advantage through the use of data – whatever the field. Using the life-cycle approach to investing, IA Ventures aims to build their partnerships from the get –go and sustain their success over time – building long-lasting relationships and maximizing cash returns for partners.
Founded in 2010, IA Ventures has raised two funds. The first one, worth $50 million, has been entirely invested, and of the second, worth $105 million, two-thirds of the capital remains un-invested. Currently, IAVentures has invested in 31 portfolio companies, averaging about ten a year.
Prior to forming IA Ventures, Roger was an active angel investor through IA Capital Partners, a seed-stage investment firm focused on digital media and financial technology. From 2004 to 2009, Roger seeded 40 companies, including Bitly, Buddy Media (acquired by Salesforce), Clickable (acquired by Syncapse), Invite Media (acquired by Google), Magnetic, TheLadders, TubeMogul, and TweetDeck (acquired by Twitter).
Earlier in his career, Roger served as President and CEO of DB Advisors, Deutsche Bank’s internal hedge fund trading platform. Before DB Advisors, Roger was Global Co-head of Deutsche Bank’s Strategic Equity Transactions Group. As an Investment Banker and Managing Director at Citibank, Roger held a variety of roles in the Global Derivatives, Capital Markets, Mergers & Acquisitions and Capital Structuring groups.
Roger holds an MBA in Finance, Accounting and Management from Columbia Business School and a BBA in Finance, Economics and Organizational Psychology from the University of Michigan. He is married with two sons.