Jeff Bennett's Blog

Highland Capital Partners celebrated it’s twentieth anniversary last night with a party for over 1,200 at the Museum of Science in Boston, Massachusetts. The guest list included 250 CEOs, long time limited partners of the firm, employees from Highland-backed companies, and business, technology and thought leaders from around the world.

Highland was founded in 1988 by Bob Higgins and Paul Maeder, both general partners that are still actively involved in leading the firm. The team was expanded to include Dan Nova in the mid 1990’s and has now expanded to include entrepreneurs Tom Stemberg, Bob Davis, Ted Philip, Peter Bell, Celtics CEO Wyc Grousbeck and noted academic and author John Palfrey.

Highland has raised over $3 billion of committed capital over it’s twenty years and backed 200 companies, 90 of which have gone public or been acquired to date. Recent Highland-backed exits include Starent Networks (IPO), Lululemon Athletica (IPO), Helicos BioSciences (IPO), VistaPrint (IPO), Optasite (acquired by SBA Communications), Navic Networks (acquired by Microsoft), Quigo (acquired by Time Warner) and PA Semi (acquired by Apple).

The event was a real reunion of sorts for many companies that have been funded by Highland over the years including Avid Technologies, Lycos, and so many more. The event was also a good gathering for current investments like NameMedia, Quattro Wireless, Going, CitySports and new entrant to the portfolio Digg.

Congrats to the Highland team.