Russian venture firm Troika Ventures (http://www.crunchbase.com/financial-organization/troika-dialog) is announcing that it has sold its share in productivity app Evernote (http://www.evernote.com/) to fellow investor Sequoia Capital. Troika Ventures was Evernote's first institutional investor, and backed the company with $4.5 million (http://techcrunch.com/2009/01/08/evernotes-45-million-new-years-eve-round/) in 2009, and participated in Evernote's $20 million C round (http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/19/evernote-funding/) in 2010. Evernote has raised a total of $95.5 million in funding. The most recent round took place last year, when Sequoia and Morgenthaler Ventures put $50 million (http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/13/evernote-takes-50-million-to-become-the-anti-zynga/) in the company.
Troika is not disclosing deal size but the firm invested back when Evernote only had 500,000 users (that number has shot up to 20 million (http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/24/evernote-bought-four-companies-last-year-and-almost-nobody-knew-about-it/) since then). And valuation (based on sale price) is up 10 times. Just based on Troika's $4.5 million investment in the A round, it is safe to assume they sold their stake for more than $45 million.
Although Evernote was rumored (http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/17/sequoia-capital-evernote-venture-capital/) to be joining the billion dollar valuation club (http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/17/billion-dollar-valuatio-club/) in its last round, the company isn't valued that high (but 'still doing quite nicely"). Perhaps that possible IPO (http://www.techmeme.com/110909/p39#a110909p39) isn't so far away?
"Evernote was one of the first companies that we invested in," said Artyom Yukhin, the head of Troika Dialog's venture division, in a release. "In addition to financing, we provided expertise and assistance at an early stage to bring the company to the forefront of consumer internet and mobile services...The exit, at over ten times our original commitment, was a difficult decision for Troika and for me personally, but we ultimately decided to provide liquidity to our investors at a multiple return on their investment rather than await the next exit opportunity. Evernote has an absolutely unique team and we are proud of its achievements and have no doubt that the company will continue to flourish under the leadership of its CEO, Phil Libin."
Of course, this means Sequoia, who also participated in the company's 2010 $20 million round (http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/19/evernote-funding/) as well, is upping its stake in the company and betting big on Evernote. By our calculations, Sequoia presumably just bought another $50 million-plus in the company.
TechCrunch