Ignition Partners was one of the first early-stage venture firms to form a later-stage private equity-style fund alongside their traditional investment vehicles in a move to capitalize on mounting investor interest in these opportunities. Ignition last year raised an $80 million annex to its 2004 Ignition III fund to help growth-stage companies scale up faster and even grow by making acquisitions.
Now Ignition, which has prospered by leveraging partners' background with tech and consumer companies, including Microsoft Corp., Starbucks Corp. and McCaw Cellular Communications, to identify and incubate startups, will expand its commitment to later-stage enterprises. Alongside a new $400 million Ignition Venture Partners IV fund, the firm
has raised a $275 million affiliated fund to focus on privately negotiated investments, primarily in profitable companies.
The Ignition Growth Capital Fund will be a separate affiliated fund, as was the $200 million
Qiming fund Ignition formed in February 2006 with Duane Kuang, former director of Intel Capital China to focus on investments in China. The new late-stage fund will be managed by Ignition partners Jon Anderson, Richard Tong, John Zagula and Robert Headley. Like the Qiming China affiliate, the late-stage vehicle will operate independently, but will share sourcing, due diligence, business development, and back-office and administrative functions with the parent firm.
- Clifford CarlsenSee post from John Cook's venture blogSee press release from Ignition
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