VC fund notes, week of Feb. 11, 2008

BlueRun Ventures holds initial close

BlueRun Ventures has held an initial close of $200 million for BlueRun Ventures IV, PE Week has learned. The firm is targeting $350 million for the early stage fund and expects to hold another close of an additional $100M during the first half of the year.

The fund’s target is slightly higher than its previous $315 million fund, raised in 2005, but smaller than its vintage 2000 fund, which weighed in at $500 million when the firm was called Nokia Venture Partners.

Varolii Corp., a portfolio company of BlueRun, is in registration for an $86 million IPO.

New Atlantic ups sidecar

New Atlantic Ventures raised $4.1 million of a proposed $20 million “Entrepreneurs Fund.” The sidecar investment vehicle comes on the heels of a first close of $70 million for the firm’s first fund. The firm, which formed during 2007 as a merger between the partners of Draper Atlantic and DFJ New England, is targeting $175 million with a $200 million cap.

Prevail Capital is serving as placement agent.

New Atlantic Ventures has four managing partners, including John Backus and Thanasis Delistathis in Reston, Va., and former DFJ New England co-founders Todd Hixon and Scott Johnson in Cambridge, Mass. The partners split from the Draper Fisher Jurvetson affiliate network in late 2006.