Ignition Partners, a private investment group with offices in Bellevue, Washington, and Shanghai, has announced the launch of its fourth early stage venture fund, Ignition Ventures IV.
Ignition Partners, a private investment group with offices in Bellevue, Washington, and Shanghai, has announced the launch of its fourth early stage venture fund, Ignition Ventures IV.
The USD400m fund will focus on companies providing telecommunications, business software and services, and consumer software and services. More than 90 percent of the capital raised was committed by Ignition’s existing institutional investors.
‘The Ignition Ventures team is gratified by the support our institutional investors are showing us,’ says Robert Headley, an administrative partner of both Ignition Ventures and Ignition Growth Capital.
‘We believe that their ongoing participation in our Ignition Venture Fund is a strong reflection of their enthusiasm for the companies in our portfolio and belief that more great companies can be built in the north-west and elsewhere.’
Ignition Ventures has more than 50 active investments, with two-thirds of its portfolio companies based in the north-west. The companies will have more than USD600m in combined revenues in 2007, an increase of over 50 percent from 2006.
Including companies that Ignition has sold, such as Avogadro, UI Evolution, Consera, Wildseed, Intelligent Results and XenSource, the firm’s portfolio companies employ a total of 2,000 people in Washington State.
‘Ignition Ventures has partnered with an outstanding group of entrepreneurs based in the north-west,’ says Peter Dolon, managing director for private equity at Harvard Management Company. ‘We look forward to continuing to support Ignition and its portfolio companies.’
In addition to its many investment partners from outside the region, Ignition has invested with more than 18 partners based in the US Pacific north-west. It has co-invested with a local partner in more than 50 per cent of its deals and plans to continue that strategy.
‘We’ve partnered with Ignition on five companies over the last several years, including most recently Illumita,’ says Matt McIlwain, managing director of Madrona Venture Group. ‘Ignition Ventures is one of our most highly valued co-investors.’
Ignition Partners has also announced the establishment of the Ignition Growth Capital Fund, a new affiliate fund that aims to help later, growth stage companies scale more rapidly. The firm’s family of funds now includes the Ignition Venture Fund, Ignition Growth Capital Fund and Qiming Ventures Fund in China.
All Ignition’s funds share back office resources, investor relationships and expertise. ‘We believe that this integrated family of funds will provide a powerful platform to support entrepreneurs in the north-west and around the world,’ Headley says.
The firm says it offers a combination of domain focus, functional expertise and global operational experience on the part of its partners in leadership positions at firms such as Microsoft, McCaw Cellular Communications, AT&T Wireless, Cisco Systems and Starbuck.
