UK’s Sapphire Ventures commits $1 billion to new funds
The venture capital business Sapphire Ventures reportedly has around $1 billion to dedicate to new investments. According to TechCrunch, the firm closed its first fund five years ago for $533 million, and is currently set to devote its large amount of resources to different kinds of business support systems.
Sapphire has reportedly shown significant growth in recent years, despite only receiving funding from one source, SAP, which it was initially part of. Exactly 33 companies Sapphire has funded have gone on to be part of acquisitions, and 14 have gone public, the source said.
Of the two funds that make up the $1 billion sum, the company will set aside the majority ($700 million) to growth. The remaining $300 million will go toward an early-stage tech fund. A press release from the company announced that Sapphire's total asset value equals $2.4 billion, including the new capital.
The day after the company announced these gains, CEO and managing director Nino Marakovic referenced some of what Sapphire will focus on in the future.
"We will continually aim to back great entrepreneurs who aspire to become industry leaders," he said in a piece for Medium. "We will continue to find impactful and creative ways to leverage our robust enterprise network for the benefit of our portfolio companies. And our relationship with our investor SAP will remain an important ingredient of our strategy."
Marakovic added that his company has made "45 new direct investments" within the past five years and called the firm's new amount of capital "significant."
Although it became independent in 2011, Sapphire was originally founded in 1996. The firm also takes part in international investments, the source said, particularly in Europe and Israel and is currently just "27 people strong."