New fund from Technology Crossover Ventures raises US$2.5b
San Francisco
THE venture capital industry faced worries earlier in the year that it had hit a rocky patch. Yet investors keep pouring money into mammoth new venture funds.
On Monday, Technology Cross-over Ventures, or TCV, said it had raised US$2.5 billion for its latest fund, which is called TCV IX. The venture capital firm is best known for investing in companies such as Dollar Shave Club, Netflix, Vice Media and Zillow.
"Despite an overall level of caution, our investors are still looking for opportunities" to invest, said Nathan Sanders, general partner and head of investor relations at TCV.
TCV's new fund is one of several from the venture capital industry to be sized at US$1 billion or more this year, even though there has been hand-wringing over whether a tech boom that had blossomed during the last few years might be imperiled. Some high-priced startups have had their valuations marked down by mutual fund investors, while other private companies suffered public management blowups or layoffs.
Yet in June, venture firms Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers raised US$1.4 billion across two funds and Andreessen Horowitz raised US$1.5 billion. Earlier this year, Founders Fund raised US$1.3 billion, while Accel garnered US$2 billion and Norwest Venture Partners raised US$1.2 billion.
Overall, the US venture industry raised US$8.8 billion in the second quarter of the year, down from US$11.1 billion a year earlier, according to data from Thomson Reuters and the National Venture Capital Association. Still, venture firms have raised US$22.9 billion in the first half of the year alone, compared with US$28.7 billion for all of 2015. NYT
