Laxman Pai, Opalesque Asia: Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm Scale Venture Partners just raised its largest fund ever. It raised $900 million for its eighth venture fund. Scale plans to use the money to back cloud and software-as-a-service startups, with an emphasis on cognitive apps.
The fund was subscribed by a combination of existing and new investors, said a press release from the early-stage venture capital firm.
Scale Partner Rory O'Driscoll said: "The last nine months have been a sea change in terms of the funding environment but tech innovation remains strong. Valuations are impacted by interest rates but innovation is not. That is the long-term bet we are all making, entrepreneurs and investors alike."
Fund VIII will build on Scale's track record of investing in emerging market leaders like Honeycomb, Observe.ai, Papaya Global, and Motive.
"Scale focuses on identifying leading companies early in their development - typically at their Series A or B - and helping them evolve from founder-led growth to a go-to-market machine. Scale has maintained a consistent pace of new investments per year for the last decade and is currently on track to do the same this year," the release said.
During the last downturn, the first generation of SaaS companies rose to prominence, it said. "Scale was fortunate enough to invest in startups like Docusign, Box, Bill.com, and Hubspot, companies that have gone on to become the software layer that f...................... To view our full article Click here
|