Atomico Ventures has raised a big new fund, one that is triple the size of the last one it raised three years ago.
The U.K.-based investment firm will now have $476 million to put into new companies, it was announced on Tuesday. The fund will be known as Atomico III.
Last year we reported that Atomico had, according to a document with the Security and Exchange Commission, raised $286 million of a total offering of $391 million. Now Atomico is revealing that the round was oversubcribed.
The firm previously raised a second fund of $165 million in March 2010.
With the new fund, the firm says that it will looking to find companies “that are looking to scale their businesses, again primarily outside Silicon Valley.”
“We look for companies led by brilliant entrepreneurs which have a hit product, underpinned by excellent technology, with impressive growth. We look for companies with the potential to become an international category winner. And, crucially, we look for companies which can attack and transform large industries, both domestically and globally,” Atomico wrote.
Founded in 2006, at least eight of the companies that Atomico invested in have either been acquired or gone public.
The first invested music streaming service Last.fm, which was acquired by CBS Interactive for $280 million and social gaming networking website Playfire, which was acquired by Green Man Gaming in 2012.
Other investments that paid off were social media management system Seesmic, which was purchased by Hootsuite in September; Skype, which was was bought by eBay for $3.1 billion in 2005; social and casual game developer Zattikka, which IPOed on the London AIM in 2012; instant messaging service Heysan, which was was acquired by Good Technology in 2009; digital media platform Kyte, which was was acquired by Kit Digital in 2011; and consumer product operating system Power Reviews, which was acquired by Bazaarvoice for $151m in 2012.
Some of Atomico’s investments this year have included participation in: a $19 million round for productivity app Wunderlist; a $13.3 million round for Restorando, provider of online restaurant reservations in Latin America; a $10 million round for online health service ChemistDirect; a $15 million Series B funding for social gifting app Wrapp; and $12 million round for Gengo, a translation platform for global companies.
“With Atomico III now closed, we can’t wait to work with even more founders who have the ambition, drive and potential to build world-leading technology companies – no matter where they come from,” said Atomico.
The state of VC funding
Atomico is hardly alone in raising a new fund. In fact, the number of venture capital funda raised just hit a five year high.
In the third quarter, 62 venture firms raised funds. It’s the highest number of funds raised since the fourth quarter of 2008, when limited partners plunked down $7.1 billion across 69 funds.
It should also be noted that the amount raised was down quarter to quarter.
Based on dollar volume, however, the 62 new funds raised $4.1 billion, is well below the nearly $8 billion raised in the second quarter.
The biggest fund was Greylock’s 14th, which was a $1 billion fund that was announced in September, which accounted for 25% of the funds raised.
(Image source: http://startupintelligence.net)
