Canaan Promotes Balen, Furnivall –

MENLO PARK, Calif. – Canaan Partners in mid-December promoted Principal John Balen to general partner and Principal James Furnivall to partner.

Balen, who works out of the firm’s Menlo Park office, focuses on e-commerce investments and will continue to raise capital, manage portfolio companies and sit on the boards of those companies.

Since joining the firm in 1995, Balen has backed companies including Commerce One Inc., E-Stamp Corp., Intraware Inc. and RightPoint, which recently was acquired by E.piphany Inc. Before joining Canaan, Balen was a managing director at Horsley Bridge Partners, where he worked for nine years.

Furnivall, a principal at Canaan since 1996, works out of the Rowayton, Conn. office where he sources deals and sits on the boards of companies in the Internet-based application space. His portfolio companies include Synchronicity Inc. and MarketSoft Corp. Prior to joining the firm, Furnivall was an associate director at Bear Sterns’ Investment Banking Division, where he specialized in IT.

Founded in 1987, Canaan makes first and second round investments in IT, health care and financial services companies throughout the United States.

Canaan closed its second fund, the $500 million Canaan Equity II in October, said Harry Rein, a managing general partner at the firm. At press time, the fund had invested in seven companies, out of an expected total of 35, with investments as large as $20 million over several rounds of financing. The $160 million Canaan Equity I, which closed in April 1997, backed 45 companies, with individual investments ranging from $5 million to $7 million.

With the promotions in place, the investment team is led by Managing General Partner Rein, General Partners Balen, Stephen Green, Deepak Kamra, Gregory Kopchinsky, Robert Migliorino and Eric Young, and Partners Furnivall, Earl Mix and Mark Thies.