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Jul 30, 2020 - Economy & Business

Exclusive: GE selling more tech startup investments to 40 North

Dan Primack
GE worker.

Photo by Hussein Faleh/AFP via Getty Images

General Electric on Thursday will announce an agreement to sell investments in eleven startups to 40 North Ventures, an affiliate of Standard Industries.

Why it matters: GE was once among the most active corporate investors in startups, but now is in exit mode.

  • The companies are Aras, Carbon, Catalant, Desktop Metal, Enbala, Menlo Micro, Nexar, Proterra, Tamr, Upskill and Volta.
  • 40 North is an early-to-growth stage firm, rather than a secondaries investor, but felt this particular portfolio was in its industrial tech-focused wheelhouse.

The bottom line: GE began prepping in early 2019 what it had hoped would be a sale of its entire GE Ventures portfolio , then with a net asset value of around $500 million. That effort failed, thus leading to mini-auctions like this one — and an earlier deal for 16 health care investments.

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