While some old-school Sand Hill venture firms have honed their strategies over the years to focus on late-stage investments, (think Institutional Venture Partners), or expanded their franchise to encompass multiple specialized funds, both domestic and global, (think Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers), InterWest Partners has stuck to an unusually even split between early-stage life sciences and information technology deals, a balance it is sticking with in its newly closed 10th fund.
InterWest Partners X raised $650 million to bring the total amount the firm has raised in its 29-year history to more than $2.8 billion. The fund represents just a slight increase in size from InterWest IX, which closed with $600 million in September 2004, and InterWest expects it to fund 25 to 30 new companies in each sector over a three-year period, with reserves set aside for follow-on investment. In support of its early-stage strategy, InterWest has acknowledged the need to capitalize companies more substantially in each round, which probably will absorb the increase in fund size without increasing dealflow.
The firm's deals will continue to focus on early-stage U.S.-based companies, while retaining the flexibility to go into occasional later-stage opportunities that cross its path. InterWest particularly targets emerging IT markets including software-as-a-service, consumer Internet, online advertising, mobility, and core life sciences therapeutic areas including cardiology, oncology/immunology, infectious diseases, ophthalmology, neurology and orthopedics.
The new fund will be managed by 10 general partners, including seven holdovers from the previous fund and new GPs Chris Ehrlich, Nina Kjellson and Doug Pepper. - Clifford Carlsen
See InterWest Partners Aug. 11 press release
See May 1 post from Tech Confidential
See April 16 post from Tech Confidential
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