- Technology-focused investment firm Battery Ventures has closed two new funds worth a combined $2 billion in order to back innovative technology companies worldwide in a variety of sectors
Technology-focused investment firm Battery Ventures has closed two new funds worth a combined $2 billion in order to back innovative technology companies worldwide in a variety of sectors. Battery Ventures XIII is a $1.2 billion investment fund and Battery Ventures XIII Side Fund is a companion vehicle capitalized at $800 million. The side fund is investing in later-stage growth and buyout transactions alongside the main fund.
With these funds, Battery is going to continue to make investments in sectors like business software, enterprise IT, financial technology, healthcare-IT, and industrial technology. And the firm also will continue to execute its differentiated strategy of backing companies at all stages of maturity. The last time Battery cloud a family of funds was in February 2018 at a total of $1.25 billion.
“Battery continues to believe that our multi-stage investing approach―plus our decades of investing experience―position us well to spot new and disruptive tech trends through all types of market cycles,” explained Battery Ventures General Partner Neeraj Agrawal. “We are proud to partner with so many exceptional founders and management teams, whose hard work and discipline building category-defining companies forms the foundation of our business.”
In conjunction with the new fund, Battery also announced Zack Smotherman has been promoted to partner. Smotherman first joined Battery in 2013 and focuses on later-stage investments in the industrial-technology sector. Previously, he worked as an associate at WestView Capital Partners and started his career in investment banking. Plus two other Battery team members Chiraag Deora and Brandon Gleklen were promoted to vice president. Deora (based in San Francisco) and Gleklen (based in Boston) work primarily on early- and growth-stage transactions.
“We’re extremely pleased to close these two new funds, and we sincerely thank our limited partners for their support,” said Battery Ventures General Partner Chelsea Stoner. “To us, the funds highlight the huge opportunity we see in many rapidly evolving technology sectors in multiple geographies―including markets many other tech investors may overlook.”
Ever since Battery was founded in 1983, the firm has invested in 426 companies globally excluding seed deals. And this resulted in 61 total IPOs and 167 M&A events.
“Battery was an invaluable partner to WebPT and instrumental in helping us grow the company, including assisting with company strategy, executive hiring, and M&A, among other things. We would not be where we are today without Battery’s expertise and guidance,” commented Nancy Ham, CEO at WebPT.
One of Battery’s biggest exits was Avalara, which went public in 2018.
“Battery’s deep, decades-old experience in cloud software, and the team’s counsel on both tactical and strategic matters, really helped us evolve from a startup to a mature public company,” stated Avalara CEO Scott McFarlane.
Here is a video that Battery Ventures shared about the new funds:
