DFJ Closes Fund with $400M

Draper Fisher Jurvetson closed its eighth fund, Draper Fisher Jurvetson Fund VIII, with $400 million in commitments, according to a regulatory filing.

The firm’s last fund, Draper Fisher Jurvetson VII, closed in 2000 with $640 million in commitments. LPs in that fund included the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), Grove Street Advisors and Hamilton Lane. The firm claims to have more than 300 limited partners in its many funds. CalPERS also committed to the firm’s DFJ Frontier Fund. CalPERS committed $20 million to the vintage 2002 fund, which reported a net internal rate of return of -4.4%, as of Sept. 30, 2003. Draper Fisher Jurvetson did not list LPs in its regulatory filing. And the firm did not return calls for comment.

Draper Fisher Jurvetson was founded in 1985 and manages more than $3 billion in committed capital. It invests in information technology as well as nanotechnology and life sciences.

The Menlo Park, Calif.-based firm has 15 affiliated firms and one international joint venture. The firm partnered with Toronto-based Primaxis Technology Ventures in late 2003 to invest in new tech companies in Canada. The $100 million fund was raised jointly by the two firms.

Draper Fisher Jurvetson’s affiliates include Pittsburgh, Penn.-based Draper Triangle Ventures, which has been raising money since last fall and invests in early stage information technology and medical device companies; SI Ventures, which invests exclusively in information technology; and DFJ Southern Cross, a $200 million fund that invests in Australian companies.

Email Matthew.Sheahan@thomson.com