Welcome to our Member Spotlight series where we give a profile overview of our many diverse members. For this deep dive, we spoke to Monica Johnson, Partner & CFO at NGP Capital.
Tell us about your firm. What makes it different?
NGP Capital is a $1B venture firm that operates with a unique model based on several attributes. First, we operate as a single fund with offices in Silicon Valley, Europe and China. This global engagement model enables us to apply global pattern recognition and best practices while accelerating portfolio company expansion into international markets.
We are thesis driven investors and envision a connected, data-first world where everyone and everything will transmit a signal. We invest in companies that leverage data to augment our daily digital lives and transform industries. Our partners average over 25 years of experience with deep domain mobile expertise offering insight into emerging technologies such as 5G and edge cloud networks.
NGP Capital works closely with corporate partners with a proven engagement model developed over fifteen years through our partnership with Nokia. NGP Capital brings the financial focus of an independent investor with the value offered by a strategic partner.
As a growth stage investor, we are data driven. Our proprietary data platform, called Q, monitors over 700,000 companies globally helping us identify high potential companies early.
As the Operating Partner & CFO, I particularly enjoy working with our companies on scale: we support the build out of finance teams, share cultural best practices and drive a cross portfolio view on helping our companies win.
What defines your portfolio?
We have invested in over 100 companies, including 8 that have had public offerings and 11 that have crossed the billion-dollar valuation mark. Our 50 active portfolio companies come from 12 countries and together had over $3 billion revenues growing 43% on average in 2019. We are active investors with a Board or Observer seat in 75% of our portfolio companies.
How is the firm different today than when you first started?
Founded in 2005, we have a stable partnership in which partners have been with NGP Capital over ten years on average. As a firm we have become more global and diverse over time. Three of our seven partners are women and our team represent six nationalities and speaks more than ten languages.
NGP Capital has added three new practices since I joined four years ago: a corporate development team to facilitate portfolio company engagement with our corporate partners; a separate portfolio management practice to disseminate best practices across our portfolio; and Q, our data and analytics function to identify high potential companies early. Increasingly, our corporate partners use Q to support their business development activities, which enhances engagement with our portfolio and pipeline.
Why is your firm a part of NVCA?
We are active participants in NVCA for both the information and insight provided, as well as to give back to the community. Across the firm, we participate weekly in webinars and events sponsored by NVCA to keep us up to date on policy and research in Washington and Venture Capital. Resources such as the Model Docs and the COVID-19 portal have been instructive to both our firm and our portfolio companies. The CFO Task Force is a valuable network for me to stay informed of best practices and to share knowledge among peers.
Tell us about the current VC landscape in your geography/region.
I am based in our Palo Alto office, but our global model in action allows us to provide support to companies scaling internationally and leverage learnings across geographies. The model has been particularly instructive during COVID as we have established practices working in a distributed environment. The impact from the pandemic across regions in terms of severity and timing has provided further insight to support our diversified portfolio.
What’s ahead for your firm in 2020 and beyond?
COVID has accelerated digital transformation in several sectors. We are excited about progress in many of our portfolio companies, while mindful that COVID has negatively impacted others. Areas in which we are actively investing include 5G and edge computing, smart logistics and the future of work.
Describe your firm’s culture in 5 words or less.
Thesis driven, global, diverse, and collaborative.
Cassie Ann Hodges serves as Director of Communications at NVCA where she leads NVCA’s strategic communications, branding and content development, and media efforts to better support and empower the venture community, startups, and entrepreneurs. She also oversees the NVCA StratComm Peer Group network and programming.
