Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Twitter Acquires Crashlytics while, at 364% IRR, Angels and VCs Sing their Glorious Strain



While the actual numbers remain a widely held secret, Gregory T. Huang of Xconomy states that Twitter just paid  over $100 million in cash and stock  for Cambridge based Crashlytics, which provides bug fixing tools for mobile developers. This appears to be Twitters largest purchase to date.

“Crashlytics  raised about $6 million from Flybridge Capital Partners, Baseline Ventures, and a lineup of angel investors who are household names in Boston tech,”  says Huang.   “I’m hearing that those angels got a higher-than-10x return on their investment, plus some of their original money back (because the company apparently didn’t spend it).” We are unsure of the actual closing dates, but seed round to exit appears to be about 16 months.

Among seed investors was the Common Angels. "We were very fortunate to back two world-class founders, Jeff Seibert and Wayne Chang,” says Managing Director Chris Sheehan.  “Jeff, Wayne and the Crashlytics team built a very successful crash reporting solution used in many of the top iOS apps today. And while the purchase price was not disclosed, this was a great outcome for the team and investors. We wish the team all the very best on the next part of their amazing journey."

Other Angels participating in Crashlytics’ funding were Joe Caruso, managing partner at Bantam Group, member of the eCoast and Common Angels; Jennifer Lum, Cofounder @Adelphic Mobile, Mentor @TechStars; Ty Danco, founder of eSecLending, member of North Country Angels and Anges Quebec; David Chang, COO of @PayPal Media NetworkLars Albright, co-founder of Quattro, now Apple iAds; and Roy Rodenstein Co-founder & CEO, SocMetrics, Co-founder HackerAngels.

Our recent post on M&A activity said it was a tough way for an angel to make a living.  Not true with an IRR of 364%.

And what do we hear from the Angels? “As an investor, I’m thrilled with the returns from the Crashlytics acquisition,” says Lum.



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