Foundation Capital closes $525m fund

Palo Alto, California-based Foundation Capital has closed a $525 million (€436 million) fund that will focus on early-stage technology startups.

Foundation Capital Fund V welcomed two new limited partners who haven’t invested with Foundation before, The Stanford Endowment and Purdue University. They joined existing Foundation limited partners Harvard University, Yale University, the University of Chicago, the Hewlett Foundation, Horseley Bridge Partners, Dartmouth College and CSFB Investment Management.

The firm says it will focus on early stage companies developing networking and telecommunications equipment, semiconductors, energy and consumer technology and enterprise software.

“It’s what we know, we’ve all started companies at very early stages,” said Foundation general partner Warren Weiss.

Foundation Capital’s partners have held top roles at companies including Cadence, Netscape, Oracle, Prism Solutions, and SGI.

Weiss said that the firm had originally intended to raise between $400 and $500 million, but the fund became oversubscribed.

Foundation’s previous vehicle, Fund IV, is now 90 percent invested and should be completely invested within a few months, Weiss said.

Fund V should follow the firm’s general pattern of investing 40 percent in software companies, 40 percent in semiconductors, telecommunications and networking firms, and 20 percent in clean energy investments and consumer companies, Weiss said.