Norwest Venture Partners (NVP), the Palo Alto, California headquartered multi-stage venture and growth equity investor, is announcing the close of its latest fund, dubbed Norwest Venture Partners XII, LP. The $1.2 billion fund targets early-to-late stage venture and growth investments across sectors. The new fund, brings NVP’s total capital and commitments to approximately $5 billion and follows the firm’s NVP XI, a $1.2 billion fund which it started investing in 2010.
NVP XII comes on the back of a record year in 2013 for NVP which saw the firm exit more than 11 portfolio companies. The exits took place both through the M&A and IPO routes. Notable exits from last year included the IPOs of cyber security comany FireEye (NASDAQ: FEYE) and digital coupon platform RetailMeNot (NASDAQ: SALE). Additionally, managed and cloud-based network services company Virtela was acquired by NTT Communications for $525 million, fraud detection company 41st Parameter was sold to Experian for $324 million and storage management software company ScaleIO was acquired by by EMC. It also sold part of its stake in Chennai based financial services company Shriram City Union Finance Ltd (NSE: SCUF).
The exit momentum continues into 2014. The new year has see the acquisition of music intelligence platform The Echo Nest by Spotify, the IPO of travel and tourism industry focused technology provider Sabre Corporation (NASDAQ: SABR), the sale of wearable device technologies company Basis to Intel, and the acquisition of personalized entertainment discovery solutions company Veveo by Rovi.
“A key strategy for success at NVP is investment diversification. We invest across multiple sectors, stages and geographies, all with a team approach that enables our portfolio companies to tap into the breadth and depth of our expertise,” NVP senior managing partner Promod Haque said in a statement to announce the close of NVP XII. “ The closing of NVP XII will enable us to expand our focus in the enterprise IT, consumer Internet, healthcare, consumer products and services sectors and grow our presence in thriving entrepreneurial hubs,” he added.
The firm’s active portfolio in India consists of cloud CRM company CRMnext, elearning company iProf, and ecommerce marketplace Pepperfry. It invests here out of Mumbai and Bangalore, backing both listed and unlisted companies. The India investment team is headlined by Niren Shah, Sohil Chand and Mohan Kumar.
Globally, NVP has invested in nearly 550 companies since inception. It currently has over 120 active companies across its venture and growth equity portfolio.
