Sapphire Ventures Raises $1.7 Billion Across Multiple Funds

By Amit Chowdhry ● Feb 15, 2021
  • Sapphire Ventures — a leading venture capital firm that partners with visionary teams and venture funds to build companies of consequence — announced that it recently raised $1.7 billion across multiple funds. These are the details.

Sapphire Ventures — a leading venture capital firm that partners with visionary teams and venture funds to build companies of consequence — announced that it recently raised $1.7 billion across multiple funds. And the new capital — which Sapphire has already started to invest out of — will primarily be used to ramp up the firm’s investments in Series B through IPO enterprise technology companies in the US, Europe, and Israel. This brings Sapphire Ventures’ total Assets Under Management (AUM) to over $5.7 billion as of December 31, 2020.

This new fundraise comes on the heels of a notable 2020. Between January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020, Sapphire invested and committed more than $970 million across 48 companies and venture funds. And in addition, two of Sapphire’s portfolio companies JFrog and Sumo Logic held an IPO on the Nasdaq. And 6 were acquired, including AllyO (acquired by HireVue), Localytics (acquired by Upland Software), PortWorx (acquired by Pure Storage), Retail Solutions (acquired by IRI and Segment acquired by Twilio).

This year marks a cornerstone year for Sapphire Ventures as it celebrates 10 years as an independent venture capital firm. And since its founding, Sapphire has been partnering with category-defining companies, investing capital, resources, and expertise in visionary entrepreneurs and their teams. Since 2011, Sapphire has invested in over 120 startups and has had 65 exits, including 23 IPOs and 42 acquisitions.

Since the company launched seven years ago, Sapphire Ventures’ Portfolio Growth has grown to accommodate portfolio companies across their business development, go-to-market, talent, marketing and capital markets needs. The new capital will be used for expanding the Portfolio Growth team to meet the demands of today’s startups that require support along their growth trajectory.

KEY QUOTES:

“Today’s entrepreneurs seek investors with not only deep-pockets but experienced partners that can support them across every leg of their journey. Sapphire Ventures has ample capital to invest in startups throughout all stages of growth. We also bring the necessary experience essential for companies to navigate different economic cycles, and we have an exceptional services team dedicated to helping our companies scale.”

— Nino Marakovic, CEO and Partner at Sapphire Ventures

“Portfolio Growth is one of the key reasons CEOs partner with Sapphire, which is why we’re expanding our services in the areas most important to our portfolio companies. By surveying our startups every year, we are closely tapped into their evolving needs and satisfaction with the support we deliver. I’m looking forward to offering an even deeper level of service for our startups so that they can ultimately achieve their business goals.”

— Rami Branitzky, Partner at Sapphire Ventures and Head of Portfolio Growth

“Sapphire Ventures is a VC you don’t want to miss the opportunity to work with. They’re a team of experienced investors who deeply understand the B2B enterprise tech ecosystem, and they have ample capital to invest in visionary ideas. In addition, Sapphire delivers a level of service that has been essential to Auth0’s growth. They’ve introduced us to more than a dozen potential customers, helped hire senior leaders for our team and much more. Simply put, Sapphire’s partnership is invaluable to Auth0.”

— Eugenio Pace, co-founder and CEO of Auth0

“As a new addition to Sapphire’s portfolio, we couldn’t be more thrilled to partner with their exceptional group of investors. In only just a couple of months, Sapphire has already been an invaluable partner. Sapphire has facilitated customer introductions, involved us in an upcoming life sciences roundtable and has made talent connections that will prove to be incredibly useful to our business. They are exactly the kind of VC that we need by our side as we move into our next stage of growth.”

— Dr. Michelle Longmire, co-founder and CEO of Medable