Changes At Guggenheim Venture Partners

Some big changes over at Guggenheim Venture Partners, an early-stage tech shop formed last year as a spinout from TL Ventures. It originally had three partners and a debut fundraising target of $150 million, but now has just two partners and will likely raise under $100 million. 

The departed partner is Javier Fernandez, who seems to be forming something called Ginkgo Capital in Portland, Oregon – where he can chum around with a bunch of fellow Intel Capital alumni. Both Michael Burns and Eric Rothfus remain. Guggenheim VP’s debut fund is now using an outside placement agent (Moravia Capital) rather than Guggenheim’s in-house team, and also has added “re-start technology companies” to its focus area.

As an aside, Guggenheim Venture Partners’ receptionist seems to suffer from the same case of denial we saw earlier in the month at Standard Life Investments’ Boston office. Namely, she pretended that Javier Fernandez still worked there. Not only is it kind of pathetic, but it’s downright deceitful.