Norwest promotes three new partners

Matthew Howard, Jeff Crowe and Sonya Brown move up the ranks

Norwest Venture Partners announced Wednesday morning that it's promoted Matthew Howard and Jeff Crowe to Managing Partner, and Sonya Brown is now General Partner.

The promotions come at a time NVP has been actively investing in growth-stage investments. In the last 12 months, NVP made 30 new venture investments and grew the firm to 80 employees around the world. The total number of active portfolio companies now stands at more than 100.   

Howard joined NVP in 2000. He led NVP’s Enterprise & Infrastructure sector team focusing on big data, cloud infrastructure, healthcare IT, enterprise systems, mobile, security and storage sectors.

During the last 12 months alone, NVP has invested more than $80 million in these sectors. Such companies include ClearDATA Networks, Health Catalyst, Pertino, Elemental Technologies, Skybox Imaging, Seculert, ScaleIO and Act-On Software.

Howard currently serves on the boards of Avere Systems, Blue Jeans Network, ConteXtream, Exablox, Hadapt, MobileIron and Pertino Networks.

He also served on about 10 boards at startups that had exits, such as Airespace (bought by Cisco Systems) and Omneon (bought by Harmonic). Howard has also appeared on the Forbes Midas List as a top 100 investor.

Crowe joined NVP in 2004. He focused on Internet, consumer and software investments.

Crowe leads NVP’s Internet & Consumer sector team which includes ad tech, consumer services, digital media, e-Commerce, enabling Internet technologies, mobile, retail and social sectors.

His team has invested in Adaptive Planning, Badgeville, The Echo Nest, Gemvara, Gilt Groupe, Lending Club, Lumosity, ModCloth, Motif Investing, Quirky, Rafter, Turn and WhaleShark Media (RetailMeNot.com).  NVP has invested more than $80 million in new venture investments in the enabling Internet technologies and e-Commerce sectors during the last 12 months.

Crowe was also helpful in guiding the exits for Admeld (acquired by Google), Jigsaw (acquired by Salesforce.com), Tuvox (acquired by West Interactive), and Cast Iron Systems (acquired by IBM, Jeff was a board advisor).

Sonya Brown joined NVP in 2011. Prior to Summit, Sonya was a founder and General Partner of iXL Ventures in 1999. Brown is a part of the NVP Growth Equity team which has grown to 13 investment professionals in the U.S. and 19 growth equity investment professionals globally.

The U.S. Growth Equity team invested more than $250 million in seven new companies over the last 12 months, including such companies as Alarm Capital Alliance (ACA), Manta Media, PICS, Rainmaker Group and other transactions that have not yet been announced.