Carlyle raises more than $300M

Carlyle Venture Partners has raised $317.6 million toward its third fund, according to a regulatory filing. The firm held a $282 million close on a third venture fund targeted to raise $700 million earlier this summer.

Carlyle Venture Partners III will be only slightly larger than its 2001 $600 million second fund. The fund has attracted 21 investors since its launch last October.

The venture firm has seven managing directors, including Robert Grady, the chairman of the National Venture Capital Association. Grady has the only startup that’s gone public from the firm’s last fund: Internet learning company Blackboard (Nasdaq: BBBB), which raised $77 million from its June, 2004 offering. —Alexander Haislip