Maples doubles fund size

Early stage investing maverick Mike Maples Jr. raised $33 million for his second fund and signed on several high-profile limited partners, according to a regulatory filing.

The $33 million second fund, called Maples Investments II, includes Horsley Bridge, The University of Chicago and Weathergage Venture Capital as investors. Limited partners in Maples’ first fund, called Maples Investments, include nine individual investors, according to regulatory filings, and Austin Ventures. Maples, now living in Atherton, Calif., used to live in Austin, Texas, and says that he knew each of the investors in his first fund for more than a decade.

PE Week reported on Maples’ second fund last week, but he declined to offer any details about the new vehicle. He did say that his strategy of investing in early new media companies would remain the same.

Maples’ first fund, a $15 million vehicle raised in 2006, has backed several high-profile deals, often at the earliest stages of investment. The investor’s best-known deal may be his investment in social news site Digg. Other investments include content student marketplace Chegg, website builder Weebly and Internet advertising and marketing services provider YuMe.

Maples worked at both Foundation Capital and August Capital before starting his own firm. He was also a co-founder of Motive, a broadband software developer, in 1997.

San Francisco-based Horsley Bridge is in the process of raising a $1.75 billion fund of funds to invest in buyout and venture funds, according to reports. The firm’s investment in Maples’ fund is not the first time it has backed a solo-GP fund. Horsley Bridge also invested in Tugboat Ventures’ first fund, a $50 million vehicle run by former Texas Pacific Group Ventures investor Dave Whorton.

At least one other single-GP fund has received backing from institutional limited partners. KPG Ventures’ $15 million first fund, run by former VSP investor Vince Vannelli, raised money from Adams Street.