Silver Lake Sumeru Eyes Next Fund, $1b-Range

Silver Lake Sumeru will probably launch its sophomore fundraising effort later this year, a source close to the firm told Buyouts.

The firm has neither hired a placement agent nor set a target for the fund, though the source said it would likely be around the same size as the firm’s debut $1.1 billion fund, closed in 2008. That fund is about three-quarters invested, the source said.

Sumeru recently announced its latest investment from its debut fund, teaming up with Essex Woodlands Health Ventures and management at MEDSEEK to buy the provider of online services for hospitals and patients. And back in October, the firm landed its first full exit, generating more than 2x its invested capital in i2 Ltd, according to the source, when it sold the intelligence and investigation management software company to International Business Machines Corp.

Sumeru, which is the mid-market buyout group of Menlo Park-based Silver Lake, makes equity investments of $25 million to $150 million in technology companies with values ranging from $50 million to $500 million. The firm is led by Founding Managing Partner Ajay Shah and Founding Managing Directors John Brennan, Hollie Moore Haynes, Paul Mercadante and Kyle Ryland.

Besides being Silver Lake’s mid-market vehicle, Sumeru has also been instrumental in expanding the technology-focused firm into emerging markets. In recent years the firm closed Silver Lake’s first deals in Brazil and Israel, and is looking for deals in India, according to a June 2011 profile of the firm in Buyouts.Partly as a result of the firm’s trailblazing, Silver Lake—which also has offices in New York, San Francisco, London, Hong Kong and Tokyo—is looking at opening offices in Brazil and India, according to the profile.