Another day, another giant fund.
Battery Ventures, a private equity and venture capital investment firm, raised $1.25 billion across two new funds. Battery Ventures XII is an $800 million fund, and Battery Ventures XII Side Fund is a companion vehicle with $450 million to fund larger growth and private equity investments. The firm also promoted Morad Elhafed to general partner.
Battery is stage-agnostic and it will make investments ranging from seed- and early-stage deals to majority-ownership transactions exceeding $100 million. The new fund will focus on sectors including business software, enterprise-IT infrastructure, consumer Internet and mobile, and industrial technology. Some of its portfolio companies include HotelTonight, Coinbase, and Wag.
Battery’s new fund comes on the heels of Sequoia Capital’s reported $8 billion global fund, among others. General partner Michael Brown said this fundraise was not in response to the increasing pressure on VCs to build bigger war chests to compete for deals. It’s no question, however, that SoftBank’s $100 billion Vision Fund looms over these decisions.
Battery Ventures has firsthand experience with the Japan-based investing giant. Wag, which is a Battery portfolio company, just raised $300 million from SoftBank.
“It’s fascinating for us as early-stage investors as well as growth stage investors where they can come in and help bolster the balance sheet of some of our companies with a few hundred million dollars. From that standpoint, it can be game-changing,” Brown said. “From a growth standpoint, they could be competitors. And to be honest, they could be buyers of some of our companies over time. They play a really interesting part of the ecosystem and how that unfolds is still a work in progress.”