SAP Ventures raises new $650M fund

The firm has now raised over $1 billion in funding in the past year

SAP Ventures is having a pretty spectacular year. Not only did a dozen of the companies it invested in see exits, but the firm has now raised a big new pile of cash that it will use to expand its presence internationally. 

The firm has closed a brand new $650 million fund, called SAP Ventures Fund II, it was announced on Wednesday.

It will be used to invest in "innovative and disruptive growth and expansion stage companies across the IT landscape, where a proven product and business model have led to demonstrated customer growth and scaling revenues.  Think rounds B, C, D and beyond," an SAP spokesperson told VatorNews.

That means technology companies that serve Enterprises directly (B2B), have Enterprises as go-to-market partners (B2B2C), or improve the lives of consumers every day (B2C).  The tech trends that SAP is focused on including Big Data and real-time applications, Cloud and SaaS, Mobile, Social and Consumerization of IT.

SAP is planning to invest between $5 and $20 million in companies initially, with the possibility of larger investments down the line.

"We prefer to lead our investments and actively assist companies with a board seat," the spokesperson told me.

The new fund, along with the $405 million SAP HANA Real Time Fund, means that SAP Ventures has now added more than $1 billion in new funds in the last year. On top of that, SAP also has another direct investment funds: the $353 million SAP Ventures Fund I.

The SAP HANA Real Time Fund does not invest directly into companies, but instead invests in early stage VC funds and select early-stage companies globally. SAP calls it a  "a Fund-of-Funds.:

All told, the firm’s total assets under management are now more than $1.4 billion.

In addition to the new funding news, the firm also announced that It is going to be expanding internationally. That means doubling its staff and building a 10-person business-development team to work with companues across the United States, Europe and Asia. 

"This team will work closely with portfolio companies to connect with customers, go-to-market partners and technology and industry experts in the enterprise ecosystem that can help them accelerate growth, scale and success," said SAP.

The SAP portfolio

SAP Ventures, which is the independent arm of German software tools provider SAP, was founded in 1997. It has invested in more than 125 companies across five continents.

This year alone, SAP Ventures has seen 12 of its companies either IPO or M&A.

The five companies that went public were Control 4, Just Dial, Marin Software, Tremor Video and Violin Memory, while seven of the companies were acquired were Aepona, Aprise, Datria, ExactTarget, Ignite, ScaleIO and Voxeo.

Some of SAP's more recent investments include participation in the following rounds: a $43 million round in Fitbit; a $35 million round in API platform Apigee;  a $44 million investment in identity security company Ping Identity; a $10 million round in OpenStack systems integrator Mirantis; and a $34.5 million round of funding for cloud contact center software provider Five9.

(Image source: https://www.sapventures.com)