HRJ Moving On Sans Joe

HRJ Capital, the fund-of-funds created by former San Francisco 49ers football players, is keeping the drive alive with a $112.5 million fifth “growth” fund, according to a recent regulatory filing. That brings HRJ’s total capital commitments to $863 million spread over 13 funds.

The filing counts 93 investors, including Brighton Jones Growth Capital in Seattle, individual investor Randall Winters of Northbrook, Ill., and U.S. broker-dealer ELK Capital Advisors, also of Northbrook.

Among the limited partners in HRJ’s other funds are Cornell University, the Duffield Family Foundation, the Edgerton Foundation, the Ford Family Foundation and the Sierra Health Foundation.

Neither Harris Barton nor Ronnie Lott, the former 49ers who founded HRJ in 1999 under the name Champion Ventures, responded to requests for comment.

Earlier this year, the Woodside, Calif.-based firm parted ways with four-time Super Bowl champ Joe Montana, who started out as a limited partner in the fund of funds then joined the firm as a managing partner in 2000. His departure in March owed to Montana’s other commitments, CFO Jeff Bloom said at the time.

Montana’s exit didn’t leave HRJ shorthanded. In addition to Lott and Barton, who are the only HRJ employees listed as beneficial owners in the regulatory filing, the firm has a staff of 26, including Duran Curis, formerly of LGT Capital, who heads up its buyout practice, and Darren Wong, head of its venture capital practice. Wong joined in 2004 from GIC Special Investments, the private equity arm of the Government of Singapore Investment Corp.

The firm has historically backed some of the bigger names in the buyout business. On its Website, it lists Apollo Management, Bain Capital, Blackstone Group, J.W. Childs Associates, Kohlberg, Kravis Roberts & Co., Perseus Capital and Texas Pacific Group as among the firms it has backed.

HRJ has also gained access to numerous brand names in the venture space, including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Summit Partners and Sequoia Capital. However, HRJ was apparently excluded from Sequoia’s newest early stage fund, Sequoia Capital XII, which is said to have rejected investments from virtually all fund-of-fund managers. —C.L.