Battery Ventures Closes New Funds at $900M

Battery Ventures, a major Boston-area VC firm, has raised two new funds that total $900 million. The firm says its approach will remain pretty consistent—covering a broad array of bets on companies in several technology sectors, at several different stages of growth.

Battery Ventures, which also has offices in Silicon Valley and Israel, is putting the money into two related funds. The largest share, $650 million, goes to the main Battery Ventures fund (the firm’s 10th). The remaining $250 million is reserved for a second fund targeting “larger growth and buyout situations.”

The 30-year-old venture firm also notes a changing of the guard atop its considerable roster. The firm is now being led by partners Dave Tabors and Scott Tobin, which the Wall Street Journal described as Battery’s “third-generation management” team.

There have been some notable departures at Battery, which raised its previous $750 million fund in 2010. As we reported last month, longtime VC Sunil Dhaliwal left Battery to found his own IT-focused fund, Amplify Partners. The Journal also noted the retirement of partner Tom Crotty.

Battery touted some of its successes in a news release announcing the new fund, including the 2012 IPOs of Splunk, Guidewire, ExactTarget, and Bazaarvoice.

Notable recent investments also include Wayfair, a Boston e-commerce startup focusing on home goods; Seattle-based IT software company Opscode; and Backplane, a social media startup co-founded by pop star Lady Gaga’s manager.

Author: Curt Woodward

Curt covered technology and innovation in the Boston area for Xconomy. He previously worked in Xconomy’s Seattle bureau and continued some coverage of Seattle-area tech companies, including Amazon and Microsoft. Curt joined Xconomy in February 2011 after nearly nine years with The Associated Press, the world's largest news organization. He worked in three states and covered a wide variety of beats for the AP, including business, law, politics, government, and general mayhem. A native Washingtonian, Curt earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA. As a past president of the state's Capitol Correspondents Association, he led efforts to expand statehouse press credentialing to online news outlets for the first time.