IVP Fund X Closes With $225M

Technology- focused Institutional Venture Partners last week announced the close of its tenth investment vehicle, IVP X LP. Originally launched in June 2000 with a $150 million target, the fund was oversubsribed and reached a total cap of $225 million.

IVP X will invest in 30 to 35 companies, investing between $5 million and $10 million in each portfolio company over a four-year investment cycle. With $1.3 billion under management, Menlo Park, Calif.-based IVP counts more than 200 companies on its roster, including AskJeeves Inc., Foundry Networks and Silicon Graphics.

Fund X will target information technology companies in the U.S., said Todd Chaffee, managing partner with IVP., focusing specifically on broadband infrastructure and software companies, the wireless sector, digital satellite companies, as well as the Internet security industry and data storage applications. Almost half the fund will be invested in late-stage companies, while one quarter will be dedicated to mid-stage investments and the remainder to public companies.

The fund began investing last June, following a $100 million first close, and already has committed approximately 14% of its capital.

Limited partners in the fund include investors from Singapore and Germany, although Chaffee declined to provide a who’s who of LPs. He did say, however, that the LPs who joined long-time IVP investor St. Paul Venture Capital are the usual suspects,including university endowments, foundations, financial institutions, pension plans and high net worth individuals.

Chaffee will co-manage the fund alongside IVP Partners Reid Dennis, Mary Elmore and Norman Fogelsong. The firm is also planning to hire two junior partners and several analysts within the next three to six months to work on the fund.

Larissa Masny can be contacted at: Larissa.Masny@tfn.com. Carolina Braunschweig also contributed to this story