Hummer Winblad Venture Partners is a venture capital firm which was founded in 1989 and is based in San Francisco, California. The firm invests in early-stage enterprise software firms based in the United States.
From their earliest funds focused on the shift away from mainframes to client/server computing, through the commodity-driven cloud data centers, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners have remained true to their software-only roots. Through their deep understanding of the technology landscape, they have helped drive companies to success by supporting those at the forefront of disruptive advances in the software industry.
HWVP founders include John Hummer and Ann Winblad. The firm was an early investor in Napster, the first popular file trading service, and wedding portal theknot.com. In 2001, several of the company's investments ended in company bankruptcies or closures, including Pets.com, Homes.com, eHow, and Rival Networks. In 2006, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners settled a lawsuit brought by EMI Group and Universal Music Group after Napster's bankruptcy.
