John Moreland (entrepreneur)

Last updated

John Moreland (born June 19, 1965) is an American entrepreneur and venture capitalist. He is the founder of Avetta, an online supplier management marketplace, and president of Operation Underground Railroad.

Contents

Early life

Moreland was born in Fullerton, California and raised in Irvine, California.[ citation needed ]

Career

Moreland became a police officer and spent most of his career as a canine handler. Moreland's longtime partner, Crambo, a veteran K-9 officer, was adopted by Moreland's family when the dog was retired from service. [1] During his tenure, Moreland worked during the Rodney King riots of the early 1990s.[ citation needed ]

Moreland formed the idea for Avetta while he was working as an occupational safety professional in the oil and gas industry. As founder, Moreland established Avetta as a supplier compliance software firm.[ citation needed ]

Moreland had financial challenges with Avetta early on and eventually received $30,000 to help the company after taking second place in a business plan competition from Brigham Young University in 2005. [2] He otherwise bootstrapped the company before raising venture capital — $35 million in a Series A investment from Norwest Venture Partners in December 2012 and a Series B round of $30 million in February 2015. At that time, Avetta had been operating in over 100 countries around the world. [3]

Moreland is also a part owner and board member of STA Jets. [4]

In 2016, Moreland joined Operation Underground Railroad (O.U.R.), an organization formed to end child kidnapping and slavery, and served as president. [5]

In 2018, Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe (WCAS), acquired a majority equity interest in Avetta. [6]

Related Research Articles

Private equity (PE) is stock in a private company that does not offer stock to the general public. In the field of finance, private equity is offered instead to specialized investment funds and limited partnerships that take an active role in the management and structuring of the companies. In casual usage, "private equity" can refer to these investment firms, rather than the companies in which that they invest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Venture capital</span> Form of private-equity financing

Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in terms of number of employees, annual revenue, scale of operations, etc. Venture capital firms or funds invest in these early-stage companies in exchange for equity, or an ownership stake. Venture capitalists take on the risk of financing start-ups in the hopes that some of the companies they support will become successful. Because startups face high uncertainty, VC investments have high rates of failure. Start-ups are usually based on an innovative technology or business model and often come from high technology industries such as information technology (IT) or biotechnology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blackstone Inc.</span> American alternative investment company

Blackstone Inc. is an American alternative investment management company based in New York City. Blackstone's private equity business has been one of the largest investors in leveraged buyouts in the last three decades, while its real estate business has actively acquired commercial real estate across the globe. Blackstone is also active in credit, infrastructure, hedge funds, secondaries, growth equity, and insurance solutions. As of May 2024, Blackstone has more than US$1 trillion in total assets under management, making it the largest alternative investment firm globally.

Sequoia Capital Operations, LLC is an American venture capital firm headquartered in Menlo Park, California which specializes in seed stage, early stage, and growth stage investments in private companies across technology sectors. As of 2022, the firm had approximately US$85 billion in assets under management.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CVC Capital Partners</span> British private equity and investment advisory firm

CVC Capital Partners plc is a Jersey-based private equity and investment advisory firm with approximately €186 billion of assets under management and approximately €157 billion in secured commitments since inception across American, European, and Asian private equity, secondaries, credit funds and infrastructure. As of 31 December 2021, the funds managed or advised by CVC are invested in more than 100 companies worldwide, employing over 450,000 people in numerous countries. CVC was founded in 1981 and, as of 31 March 2022, has over 850 employees working across its network of 25 offices throughout EMEA, Asia and the Americas.

Silver Lake Technology Management, L.L.C., is an American global private equity firm focused on technology and technology-enabled investments. Silver Lake is headquartered in Silicon Valley and New York, and has offices in London, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe</span> American private equity firm

Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe (WCAS), also referred to as Welsh Carson, is a private equity firm. WCAS was formed in 1979 and focuses on investing the industries of technology and healthcare, primarily in the United States. WCAS has a current portfolio of approximately 30 companies and has organized 17 limited partnerships with total capital of over $27 billion, consisting of 13 equity partnerships and four subordinated debt partnerships. WCAS is currently investing equity funds, including WCAS XII, L.P. and WCAS XIII, L.P.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baird (investment bank)</span> American investment firm

Robert W. Baird & Co. is an American multinational independent investment firm and financial services company. It is the principal U.S. operating subsidiary of Baird, an international, employee-owned firm providing investment banking, capital markets, private equity, wealth management, and asset management services to individuals, corporations, institutional investors, and municipalities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Private equity firm</span> Firm that invests in privately held companies

A private equity firm or private equity company is an investment management company that provides financial backing and makes investments in the private equity of a startup or of an existing operating company with the end goal to make a profit on its investments. The target companies are generally privately owned entities, but it seldomly happens that private equity firms purchase the majority of a publicly listed company and delists the firm after the purchase.

Norwest Venture Partners (Norwest) is an American venture and growth equity investment firm. The firm targets early to late-stage venture and growth equity investments across several sectors, including cloud computing and information technology, Internet, SaaS, business and financial services, and healthcare. Headquartered in Menlo Park, California, Norwest has offices in San Francisco and subsidiaries in Mumbai, India and Tel Aviv, Israel. The firm has funded more than 700 companies since inception.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Early history of private equity</span>

The early history of private equity relates to one of the major periods in the history of private equity and venture capital. Within the broader private equity industry, two distinct sub-industries, leveraged buyouts and venture capital experienced growth along parallel although interrelated tracks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Private equity in the 2000s</span>

Private equity in the 2000s represents one of the major growth periods in the history of private equity and venture capital. Within the broader private equity industry, two distinct sub-industries, leveraged buyouts and venture capital expanded along parallel and interrelated tracks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Advent International</span> Global private equity firm

Advent International Corporation is an American global private equity firm focused on buyouts of companies in Western and Central Europe, North America, Latin America and Asia. The firm focuses on international buyouts, growth and strategic restructuring in five core sectors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matrix Partners</span> US-based private equity investment firm

Matrix Partners is a US-based private equity investment firm focusing on venture capital investments. The firm invests in seed and early-stage companies in the United States and India, particularly in the software, communications, semiconductors, data storage, Internet or wireless sectors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Partners Group</span> Swiss-based global private equity firm

Partners Group Holding AG is a Swiss-based global private equity firm with US$149 billion in assets under management in private equity, private infrastructure, private real estate and private debt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">M/C Partners</span> American private equity firm

M/C Partners is a private equity firm focused on growth equity investments in emerging companies in the media and communications industries. M/C invests in early, mid, and late stage companies as well as turnarounds and buyouts in its sectors of focus. The firm was formerly known as Media Communications Partners.

Capillary Technologies is an international SaaS technology company. Capillary's primary product is its cloud-based customer loyalty/customer engagement and e-commerce platform, Intelligent Loyalty. Capillary also offers loyalty and other marketing consulting services.

An operating partner is a title used by venture capital (VC) and private equity (PE) firms to describe a role dedicated to working with privately held companies to increase value. The role was created by large-capitalization private equity groups when the importance of driving corporate change to add value increased as sellers became more sophisticated and financial engineering less central to private equity investments in the 2000s. Firms with operating partners argue that value creation potential is better achieved by a fully dedicated partner than relying solely upon external consultants. The operating partner role has evolved into a full-time position drawing a combination of salary, performance bonus, and carried interest similar to an investment partner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ECI Partners</span>

ECI Partners is a growth focused private equity group based in the UK and the US, first established by the Bank of England in 1976.

References

  1. GRAD, SHELBY (21 January 1994). "IRVINE : Police Retire Aging Dog in Ceremony". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 9 September 2016.
  2. "BYU - Marriott School - News - Alianza Wins 2005 Business Plan Competition". Brigham Young University. Retrieved 9 September 2016.
  3. "PICS Auditing Raises $35M Minority Equity Investment from Norwest Venture Partners". FinSMEs. 16 January 2013. Retrieved 9 September 2016.
  4. "Volunteering | John Moreland | LinkedIn". LinkedIn. Retrieved 17 November 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  5. "The Life Behind Operation Underground Railroad's New President". Ourrescue.org. Retrieved 9 September 2016.
  6. "Buyout Firm Welsh Carson Weighs $3 Billion Sale of Avetta". www.bloomberg.com. February 13, 2024. Retrieved May 29, 2024.