Kearny raises nearly $97M

San Francisco-based Kearny Venture Partners has raised $96.8 million from six investors, according to a regulatory filing. Kearny raised commitments from Lexington Partners VI Holdings, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System and Daiichi Sankyo Co., according to the filing.

Pharmaceutical giant Daiichi Sankyo contributed $60 million to the fund-raising effort, according to a company press release. It may eventually invest up to $180 million.

The firm had raised $85 million in 2006. Initial reports of the firm’s first close indicated that Kearny might reach an $180 million target by early 2007, but the firm has yet to meet this target. No information on the target is available from the latest regulatory filing.

Kearny Venture Partners is staffed by the reconstituted teams of the health care arm of Alex Brown & Sons>’ venture firm called ABS Ventures HC and the health care team of Thomas Weisel Partners. Dick Spalding, Jim Shapiro, Caley Castelein and Anupam Dalal still manage the $100 million ABS Ventures HC fund, raised in January 2000 and the $122 million Thomas Weisel Healthcare Venture Partners Fund raised in 2003.

The firm has made two investments so far this year. It participated in a $25 million Series B in January for medical device manufacturer ViewRay, which makes magnetic resonance imaging guided radiation therapy tools for the treatment of cancer. It also backed the $65 million Series A spinout of heart surgery medical device company TriVascular from Boston Scientific at the end of March.

Kearny has yet to have one of its investments from the latest fund reach a liquidity event, but two of the companies from the previous funds have gone public, according to data from Thomson Financial (publisher of PE Week). Medical device company Hansen Medical (Nasdaq: HNSN) made a $75 million offering in November 2006 and spinal surgery device company Trans1 (Nasdaq: TSON) made an $82.5 million offering in October 2007.

Hansen Medical was trading slightly above its offering price and Trans1 was trading slightly below, as of last week.