Sequoia Capital, the marquee Silicon Valley venture capital firm, is not the only investor that is poised to score big when Google completes its $1.65 billion buyout of the Internet video-sharing site YouTube.
Artis Capital Management, a hedge fund based in San Francisco, invested alongside Sequoia in the second round of financing in April 2006, when YouTube received $8 million, according to regulatory filings. Individuals also received small stakes in the company, said Roelof Botha, a South African and the Sequoia partner who led its investments in YouTube.
Previously, YouTube had identified only Sequoia as an investor. In a news release in April that is still on its Web site, YouTube said it had “received $8 million in Series B funding from Sequoia Capital.”
“They are a family business,” Mr. Botha said of Artis. “They didn’t have a desire to be in the limelight.” He would not say how much Artis had invested.
A spokeswoman for YouTube, Julie Supan, said Artis “chose to remain behind the scenes.”
John Milani, chief operating officer at Artis, declined to comment on Tuesday. Regulatory filings show that at the end of June, Artis managed more than $1.2 billion in investments. Its backing of YouTube was reported in PE Week, a newsletter and online service owned by Thomson Financial.
Mr. Botha described Artis as “primarily a hedge fund that also invests in private companies as a passive investor.”
He said friends and advisers of YouTube’s founders also invested in the first round of financing in November 2005, when the company received $3.5 million. Mr. Botha declined to identify those investors.