Thursday, June 21, 2012

Sonos Funding Pays Off For Early Investors

When is a funding also an exit? When part of that funding is used to pay off early investors. The $135M funding for Santa Barbara-based wireless music system maker Sonos appears to be just that, rewarding such investors as Andreas von Blottnitz, and undoubtedly co-founders John MacFarlane, Craig Shelburne, Tom Cullen. Sonos had raised $41M in funding--mostly from BV Capital, the investment fund of Andreas von Blottnitz--before this late stage injection from Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., Elevation Partners, and Redpoint Ventures. The Sonos funding/exit is an echo of the strategy of another, prominent Santa Barbara firm from some years ago, Fastclick, which also took a large private equity investment which cashed out its founders, shortly before filing for an IPO. Sonos hasn't detailed the funding, but reportedly, $45M of the funds are going to the company as new capital, with the rest going to early investors to cash them out. von Blottnitz was co-founder of ExpertCity (now Citrix Online), and his other investments include Eucalpytus, AppFolio, and Recurly.

---