Venture capital firm Lux Capital has closed its third fund, Lux Ventures III, with commitments totalling USD245m.
The fund was oversubscribed, surpassing its initial USD200m target, and is the firm’s largest to date.
Limited partners comprise a number of prominent global foundations, endowments, financial institutions, fund-of-funds, corporations, and family offices.
“We are incredibly fortunate to have the support of our existing investors, as well as welcoming new institutions as our partners in Lux Ventures III,” says Lux Capital general partner Adam Kalish (pictured). “We all share the philosophy that a differentiated approach and willingness to make contrarian venture investments can drive superior results.”
“At Lux, we are sticking to our knitting to build a concentrated portfolio of extraordinary companies in unconventional areas,” says Lux Capital co-founder and managing partner Josh Wolfe. “Many of the themes and entrepreneurs we’re excited about—in 3D printing, metamaterials, robotics and breakthroughs in solid-state electronics—are non-obvious, and that’s by design. We believe the combination of brilliant entrepreneurs and deep scientific innovation drives immense industry shifts and profits. Both at Lux and our companies, we’re growing rapidly and calling for the boldest and brightest that want to invent and invest in the future.”
Lux recently opened a new office in Palo Alto. The firm also added three new venture partners to the team since raising its prior fund: Jeff Kindler, former chairman and chief executive of Pfizer; Jim Woolsey, former director of the CIA; and Richard Foster, former senior partner at McKinsey.
Lux Ventures III is pursuing the same focused investment strategy within the energy, technology and healthcare sectors – investments revealed to date include Gridco Systems, Kymeta, Kyruus, and Shapeways. The fund is making seed investments from USD100,000 up to commitments of USD15m over a company’s life. Lux will also focus on special situations and corporate spinouts.
Lux’s prior fund, Lux Ventures II, closed in 2007 allocating its nearly USD100m in commitments to representative investments including Kurion, Transphorm, Cerulean, Genocea, Kala, and Everspin.
