---
alias:
- Allen Patricof and Associates
- Patricof & Co.
- APA
category: Private Organization
created: 2026-09-22
location: New York City
summary: New York venture capital firm, formally Allen Patricof and Associates, that
  managed the 53rd Street Ventures fund and through it made a 100,000-dollar investment
  in INSLAW about 1982; the firm where Patricia Cloherty worked before and after her
  government service.
tags:
- Organization
- Patricof
- PROMIS
- INSLAW
- VentureCapital
updated: 2026-09-22
---

Patricof and Company, formally Allen Patricof and Associates and known in the special counsel's report as APA, was a New York venture capital firm founded in 1969 as Patricof & Co. Ventures by [Alan Patricof](/people/alan-patricof/), later renamed Apax Partners.[^2] It managed several funds, among them [53rd Street Ventures](/organizations/53rd-street-ventures/), formed about 1976. [Jonathan Ben Cnaan](/people/jonathan-ben-cnaan/), a native of [Israel](/places/israel/) employed at the firm from 1981 to 1987, managed the funds and about 1982 made the firm's first investment in [INSLAW](/organizations/inslaw/), 100,000 dollars through 53rd Street Ventures, describing himself to the investigators of [Nicholas J. Bua](/people/nicholas-j-bua/) as a "follower" investor with no active role in the negotiations. [Patricia Cloherty](/people/patricia-cloherty/) worked at the firm from about 1970 to 1977, left for the Small Business Administration under [Jimmy Carter](/people/jimmy-carter/), ran Tessler and Cloherty with her husband [Daniel Tessler](/people/daniel-tessler/) through the 1980s, during which that firm took over the 53rd Street fund in 1984, and returned to Patricof and Company in February 1988. Neither the House Judiciary Committee nor Bua found any wrongdoing by the firm, which entered the [INSLAW affair](/events/promis-software-scandal/) only through its stake in the company and the handoff of the fund to the Tesslers, whose dealings with [Bill Hamilton](/people/bill-hamilton/) in December 1984 became the subject of his affidavit.[^1]

[^1]: U.S. Department of Justice. *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General of the United States Regarding the Allegations of Inslaw, Inc.,* March 1993, interviews of Jonathan Ben Cnaan, Daniel Tessler and Patricia Cloherty. https://archive.org/details/InslawPROMISBuaReport
[^2]: Boston Properties, Inc. Definitive proxy statement (Schedule 14A), filed March 29, 2002, director biography of Alan J. Patricof. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1037540/000092701602001770/ddef14a.txt