Silicon Valley veteran investor Menlo Ventures has raised $450m for its 14th VC fund targeting early-stage tech investments. The firm says the fund was oversubscribed by existing investors.
Menlo’s portfolio includes FinTech companies Betterment, RealtyShares and Credit Sesame. Its notable exits include Tumblr, Siri and Periscope.
The firm says roughly half of the fund will be invested in consumer tech and the other half in enterprise infrastructure with 5% allocated for seed deals.
Menlo’s previous fund closed with $400m in April 2015.
Managing director Mark Siegel highlighted the wealth of VC capital available today and in a blog post said: “Menlo XIV closes at a time when the VC industry is flush with capital. Warnings abound about a venture capital “bubble” and an impending downturn.
“We share this concern and have deliberately avoided the temptation to grow our fund size. Data suggests that funds below $500 mare over five times as likely to deliver over 3x net returns, which certainly is our goal.
“When markets take a turn for the worse, it is particularly hard to generate outstanding multiples on a large fund.”
The firm says it has also made internal investments in its Menlo Fuel support services and its Menlo Signal metric tracking and analysis technology as well as opening new San Francisco office.
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