Miramar raises $41M for second fund

Miramar Venture Partners, an early stage venture firm in Southern California, has raised $41 million toward a second fund.

Based in Corona del Mar, Calif., Miramar raised the money from 26 accredited investors, including family offices HS Partners Holdings III and SRG Miramar, according to a regulatory filing. A source familiar with the firm said it hopes to raise $80 million to $100 million.

The new fund features the same four partners from the firm’s first, an $81 million vehicle raised in 2001: Rick Fink, Bruce Hallett, Bob Holmen and Heiner Sussner.

The firm’s partners declined to comment.

Miramar’s debut fund has invested in an estimated 16 companies, including seven chip developers and four Internet startups, according to Thomson Reuters (publisher of PE Week).

To date, the firm has exited three of its investments: Berkana Wireless Inc., a fabless semiconductor company, Protego Networks Inc., a provider of network security solutions, and Tarari Inc., which makes chips to improve the processing power of servers handling tasks such as XML-based Web services.

Its biggest return appeared to come from Protego, which had raised $6.3 million from Miramar and Global Alliance Ltd. That company was acquired by Cisco Systems Inc. in February 2005 for $65 million in cash.

Berkana—which had raised $32 million from Miramar, Legend Capital, Storm Ventures and other investors—was bought by Qualcomm for $56 million in January 2006, and Tarari—which had raised $42.8 million from Miramar, Crosspoint Venture Partners, Intel Capital and others—was acquired by LSI Corp. for $85 million in September 2007. —Lawrence Aragon