Battery Ventures was founded in 1983 by Rick Frisbie, Howard Anderson, and Bob Barrett in Boston, building a research-focused, collaborative approach to backing category-leading technology companies across their entire lifecycle, from seed investments through growth equity and buyouts. That range paid off in 2011, when General Partner Neeraj Agrawal led Battery's investment in Wayfair's first institutional financing round - a bet built partly on a decade-long friendship with co-founder Niraj Shah dating back to their college days at Cornell. Wayfair went public just three years later, in 2014.
Wayfair's 2014 IPO - Battery led the company's first institutional financing round in 2011, after General Partner Neeraj Agrawal recognized the opportunity through a decade-long friendship with co-founder Niraj Shah