Manuel A. Henriquez
 | The topic of this article may not meet Wikitia's general notability guideline. |
Manuel A. Henriquez | |
|---|---|
| Add a Photo | |
| Born | Dominican Republic |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Northeastern University |
| Occupation |
|
| Organization | Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE: HTGC) |
Manuel A. Henriquez is an American entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist. He is best known as the co-founder and former Chairman and CEO of Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE: HTGC), a publicly traded business development company specializing in venture lending. Henriquez has also founded and led several other ventures, including Finovance Technologies and Ingenuity Capital Partners, and has been actively involved in philanthropic efforts focused on children's health and education.
Early life and education
Henriquez was born in the Dominican Republic and moved to Florida at the age of two. He was diagnosed in childhood with dyslexia and dysgraphia, which later influenced his philanthropic focus on helping children with learning disabilities. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Northeastern University in 1987.
Career
Early ventures
While attending Northeastern University, Henriquez launched his first company, Boston Professional Computers, in the fall of 1982. The company provided off-campus students with the ability to remotely access the university’s computer network using Hayes 1600 baud modems and desktop computers.
In the fall of his sophomore year, he founded WordWorks, a technology service company targeting college students. WordWorks enabled students to use IBM PC-compatible and Apple II computers with Software Publishing Corporation’s PFS:Write software to electronically type, edit, and store term papers, resumes, and theses. The service introduced early spell-check, copy/paste, and mail merge capabilities, offering an alternative to IBM Selectric typewriters. WordWorks eventually scaled into a typing service with a paid team of typists, effectively introducing a time-shifted task outsourcing model similar to what eventually became a future Kinko’s business model.
BancBoston Ventures
Upon graduation from Northeastern University in the summer of 1987, Henriquez joined The Bank of Boston's venture capital group, where he focused on early-stage technology (inFocus), biotech companies (Genzyme, BioSurface), and specialty retail companies (Worlds of Wonder, T. Deane Clothing, and Pacific Lines), among others.
The First National Bank of Boston
Henriquez was later selected for the prestigious Loan Officer Development Program (LODP), a rigorous 15–18 month credit and underwriting training program designed to develop expertise across a variety of industries. Henriquez completed the program and subsequently joined the bank’s emerging technology practice.
ON Technology Company
In the fall of 1991, Henriquez left Bank of Boston and joined ON Technology Company, founded by Mitch Kapor, the creator of Lotus 1-2-3. The company was backed by venture capital firms including Kleiner Perkins and Apple Computers. As Director of Finance and Operations, Henriquez oversaw all aspects of financial reporting and the production of shrink-wrapped software for ONTech, MeetingMaker, and ONSolutions. He was later tasked with managing the third-party software reseller channel (Ingram Micro and Merisel) and contributed to the company’s acquisition by Notework Corporation in late 1993.
Robertson Stephens & Co. – Omega Ventures
In the winter of 1993, after the ON Technology acquisition, Henriquez joined Robertson Stephens’ late-stage venture capital group, initially named Omega Ventures (later Crosslink Capital), where he focused on equity investments in pre-IPO, late-stage companies.
Comdisco Ventures
Henriquez was recruited to Comdisco Ventures to help grow a new source of growth capital financing known as venture leasing. Drawing on his experience in credit and software operations, Henriquez identified a larger market opportunity in venture debt financing. He is widely recognized for pioneering and evangelizing this new form of growth capital. He was promoted to President and Chief Investment Officer, a position he held until his departure in March 2000.
VantagePoint Venture Partners
Henriquez joined VantagePoint Venture Partners as a Partner focused on later-stage technology investments. He served on the boards of companies including LuckyStrike and STSN. He left VantagePoint in 2003 to launch Hercules Capital.
Hercules Capital
In 2003, Henriquez co-founded Hercules Capital, originally formed as Condor Capital. The company was later renamed Hercules Technology Growth Capital and subsequently Hercules Capital, Inc. His co-founders were Scott Harvey (Chief Legal Officer and Chief Compliance Officer) and Glen Howard (President and Senior Managing Director of Technology Originations) were the only two other co-founders of Hercules Capital.
Henriquez led the company through its initial stages of capital formation (late 2003), raising $1.7 million in seed funding. Additional seed funding came from Joel Johnson, a well-regarded financial analyst formerly of Montgomery Securities and a co-founder of JMP Securities. JMP later helped Hercules raise over $27 million in pre-IPO equity capital and secured access to approximately $75 million in pre-IPO warehouse bridge financing from Farallon Capital.
Hercules Capital completed three rounds of pre-IPO financing in 2003, 2004, and 2005, culminating in a successful IPO in June 2005 that raised $77 million in gross proceeds. Henriquez served as Chairman and CEO, and in the early years also held the roles of Chief Investment Officer and Chief Credit Officer.
From December 2003 to July 2019, he oversaw the deployment of nearly $9 billion in capital commitments, with cumulative net capital losses of approximately $35 million—representing under 3 basis points annually, according to SEC filings. Henriquez also developed and was soley responsible for the company’s pre-IPO secondary equity investment strategy, acquiring early stakes in companies such as Facebook, Palantir, DoorDash, DocuSign, Nextdoor, 23andMe, and Sprinklr. These investments generated over $200 million in capital gains following his departure.
Finovance Technologies
After leaving Hercules, Henriquez co-founded Finovance Technologies, Inc. with Craig Schmeizer and Gavin Conway. Finovance was a fintech company leveraging artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), predictive analytics, and proprietary algorithms to streamline customer acquisition costs "CAC", and enhanced underwriting using a series of APIs to create a human assisted AI near real-time underwriting platform.
Finovance partnered with Grasshopper Bank to offer banking-as-a-service (BaaS) infrastructure, including deposit services and debit card issuance. The company focused on revenue-based financing (RBF) solutions, offering non-credit funding to small and medium-sized businesses. It operated in London, Orlando, Vero Beach, and Menlo Park and completed a successful M&A exit and wind-down in late 2024.
Ingenuity Capital Partners
Henriquez later founded Ingenuity Capital Partners, a strategic consulting firm specializing in operational business planning, venture debt investment execution, risk management, and strategic partnerships in the venture lending space. Ingenuity currently advises a $20 billion asset manager on expanding and repositioning its venture debt platform.
Florida Angel Investors LLC
Henriquez also founded Florida Angel Investors LLC, an angel and seed-stage venture capital fund focused on early-stage investments in the fintech and technology sectors.
Legal disclosure
In 2019, Henriquez was implicated in the U.S. college admissions bribery scandal ("Operation Varsity Blues") along with 50 other prominent families. He was sentenced to six months in prison, two years of supervised release, a $200,000 fine, and 200 hours of community service.
Philanthropy
Henriquez has dedicated much of his professional life and philanthropic efforts to children's health and education, particularly supporting those with learning disabilities. His board service includes:
- Vice Chairman of the Board and Chairman of the Executive Committee at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Foundation at Stanford University
- Chairman of the CEO Search Committee and member of the Investment Committee at Lucile Packard
- Treasurer, Chairman of the Finance Committee, and Investment Committee member at Children’s Health Council (CHC)
- Board member at Charles Armstrong School, a K–8 school for children with special education needs
- Board member at AchieveKids, a K–12 school supporting children with severe autism and nonverbal communication
- Board member at VIA Services
Henriquez continues to support philanthropic initiatives focused on children’s health, environmental causes, and learning disabilities.
References
External links
This article "Manuel A. Henriquez" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical. Articles taken from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be accessed on Wikipedia's Draft Namespace.