Privately held venture capital firm, Sierra Ventures, has closed its eleventh investment fund, raising $170 million.
The firm is known to seek out and invest in early stage startups and help them scale and meet enterprise and consumer market demands. It has raised over $1.9B in capital and has provided funding to over 225 companies.
The fund, according to a release, was oversubscribed and will focus on investing in “early-stage technology companies that can transform and disrupt industries and technologies.”
Interest in Fund XI was driven by the initial success of Fund X portfolio companies, and has achieved five successful exits. Bina Technologies, Nexgate, Social Touch, Tempo AI and Ximalaya were acquired for a combined value exceeding $625 million and were funded during the past three years. Fund X closed in May 2012 and has invested in 23 portfolio companies; 19 of which had Sierra as the lead investor.
The fund received strong commitments from existing limited partners, while adding a select few new investors resulting in the increased fund size. All institutional investors from the prior fund returned to participate in the new fund.
Managing Directors Mark Fernandes, Tim Guleri and Ben Yu, have worked together for almost 14 years.
“Similar to Fund X, and with the same managing directors, we will continue to fund companies within the enterprise software, connected devices, and consumer marketplace sectors that address consumer and enterprise needs, while also exploring new, emerging technology sectors,” noted Fernandes.
Meanwhile Guleri felt that the firm’s entrepreneurial experience and unique Sierra resources will bring value to entrepreneurs to ensure maximum business growth.
“Building on the success of Fund X, Sierra will implement a similar investment model for Fund XI, focusing on seed, Series A and Series B investments,” he added.
Part of Sierra’s resources include the CXO Advisory Board, a forum that unites senior technology executives across a variety of industries, introduces the advisors to Sierra’s portfolio companies, discusses market trends and new technologies.
A few of Sierra Ventures recent successful exits include the IPOs of InvenSense, Sourcefire, AuthenTec, and the acquisitions of Ooyala (by Telstra), Greenplum (by EMC), and Bina Technologies (by Roche). Sierra has also backed prominent industry leading technology companies like Intuit, Healtheon and Teradata.