Dive Brief:
- Venture capital firm Sapphire Ventures announced Wednesday that it raised $1 billion in funds to further invest in expansion-stage tech startups and technology-focused venture capital funds.
- Solely backed by software giant SAP, Sapphire Ventures spun out in 2011 to become an independent venture capital firm. Since then, the firm has seen exits in its portfolio from 15 IPOs and 23 mergers and acquisitions.
- With the new funding, Sapphire's total assets under management are now more than $2.4 billion.
Dive Insight:
Several large tech companies have launched venture programs to help them gobble up smaller, more nimble companies to better compete in the evolving corporate tech market. In May, Hewlett Packard Enterprise launched Hewlett Packard Ventures to help it reinvigorate its offerings and compete with its rivals. The program, called Pathfinder, will target startups focused on Big Data, security and the cloud.
Sapphire is one of the most active VC investors in U.S.-based tech firms. In 2015, four of Sapphire’s portfolio companies — Apigee, Box, Fitbit and Square — went public. That's the same Apigee that Google purchased for $625 million last week.
Venture capital investments in startups are on the rise. The MoneyTree Report released by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association in July found investors put $15.3 billion into venture-backed startups in the second quarter of 2016. That’s 20.5% increase from the first quarter.
