Fund News: Rovio investor Felicis closes a $70M fund

Funds will be used to invest in new start-ups and 3D technology

Could we be seeing the next Angry Bird soon? A top angel fund, and early investor in Angry Birds developer Rovio, has just closed a new fund and is on the lookout for some fresh startups.

Super angel fund Felicis Ventures, closed a $70 million fund, it announced earlier this week.

The new fund will be used to invest in start-ups, as well as “explore ground-breaking technology areas such as 3D imaging, bio-informatics and connected devices at home.”

The firm also announced the promotion of two new partners: Renata Streit Quintini and Sundeep Peechu.

Quintini will become the head of Felicis’ e-commerce and education investments, while Peechu will be in charge of Felicis’ mobile, enterprise and health efforts. These are the five key areas that Felicis Ventures focuses on.

Palo Alto-based Felicis Ventures was founded in 2006 by Aydin Senkut, a former employee at Google. Besides its investment in Rovio, Felicis has also invested in Soundhound, Baby.com.br, Meraki, Wildfire, Inkling, Mindsnacks, Practive Fusion and Fitbit. They previously raised a $40 million fund in August 2010.

Their more recent investments include a $15 million round for shopping website Shopify; a $15 million round for biotech company DNAnexus; an $11 million round for cloud-based communications provider ClearSlide; and a $1.5 million round for online educator Piazza.

Felicis Ventures has seen 28 exits, 13 of which have come over the past two years, that have generated over $1.2 billion, to companies such as Google, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, eBay, Disney, Intuit, Groupon and Twitter.

"The top 1/4 of our companies are on track to generate an aggregate $800M in annualized sales this year -- our portfolio companies are not just leading with innovative technologies but they're also building solid businesses," said Senkut said in the statement.

This is the second large fund closed out this month, after Madrona Venture Group, an early investor in Amazon, announced a $300 million fund that will go to start-ups in the Pacific Northwest.

Earlier this month, Khosla Ventures announced it would be raised a new fund, but did not undisclosed the fundraising goal.

Other 2012 funds

Other large funds this year include a $525 million fund closed by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers last month; a $135 million fund started by early-stage venture capital firm First Round Capital, and a $100 fund raiscloseded by Berlin-based Earlybird in April.

In March, Groupon investor NEA filed with the SEC to raise $2.3 billion, while DST, one of Facebook's biggest investors, was looking to raise $1 billion.

Andreessen Horowitz, also based in Menlo Park, secured a $1.5 billion fund in January, announcing it had raised $2.7 billion in three years.

(Image source: pehub.com)