Bastion

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Bastion Capital Corp.

Specialty: Communications

Capital under management: $125 million

Amount invested in 1996: $30 million

A healthy degree of skepticism from investors awaited Danny Villanueva Sr. and Guillermo Bron when they set out to start a venture capital fund several years ago targeting Hispanic consumers.

“There was no precedent for this kind of fund. On a couple of occasions, (investors) questioned whether we could pull this off whether the universe was broad enough,” said Villanueva, an ex-L.A. Rams football kicker-turned-venture capitalist.

The two partners persisted, and their patience bore fruit in the form of their new company, Bastion Capital Corp., established in 1991 with its $125 million Bastion Capital Fund.

Villanueva, Bron and their third partner, Tom Clerkin, have made only three venture capital investments to date. Villanueva calls himself Bastion’s “marketing guy,” while the other two partners are more finance-oriented.

Aside from the Hispanic angle, Bastion targets later stage companies that are either leaders in their industries or hold the next best position, said Villanueva.

Accordingly, Bastion’s three investments to date are all industry leaders. They are Spanish language broadcasting company Telemundo Television Group Inc., wireless telecommunications firm Nextwave Communications and Renaissance Cosmetics Inc. All three are national companies, although Telemundo and Nextwave both have a major presence in Southern California.

Bastion’s first fund has been so successful that Bastion is planning a second fund, Bastion Capital II, that will be more than twice the size of the first with $250 million to $300 million.

Douglas Young

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