Why Chestnut Street Ventures jumped on the Domo bandwagon

Turns out there was a Philly player in that massive cash infusion for Domo, a business intelligence and data visualization company based out of Utah’s “Silicon Slopes.”

Chestnut Street Ventures, the early-stage venture firm with a Penn focus, joined the likes of Andreesen Horowitz and Benchmark Capital, in a Series D2 extension which closed at $100 million. Though the amount of the investment wasn’t disclosed, Chestnut Street usually invests around $200,000 in its portfolio companies.

The firm got the tip-off from sister fund Blue Ivy Ventures, which invests in companies started by Yale alumnus. But wait: didn’t the investment firm set out to fund Penn-related companies? Are there any quakers among Domo’s leadership?

“None!” said Managing Director Gail Ball. “It’s an investment that falls within our guidelines pertaining to syndicated participation in deals led by our sister funds. It’s another way our LPs get access to deals they couldn’t get access to in their individual capacity, but not in such numbers as to ever compromise the integrity of the alum community we are serving.”

Ball said the company decided to join the deal after their research yielded Domo as a “clear market leader in the business intelligence category” and because of its traction among OG companies like MasterCard.