Conductive Ventures, the US-based growth equity firm that counts consumer electronics producer Panasonic as its sole limited partner, launched yesterday with $100m of capital and disclosed its first four portfolio companies.
The firm focuses on growth-stage enterprise software and hardware developers. Co-founder and managing director Carey Lai told TechCrunch it will invest $2m to $7m per deal and plans to back 10 to 15 companies through the $100m fund.
Conductive has not revealed how much it has invested in the four companies, all of which are based in the US, but they include Desktop Metal, the metal 3D printer maker that closed a $65m round led by carmaker Ford Motor Company last month.
Ambiq Micro, the integrated circuit developer backed by semiconductor manufacturer Arm, has also received funding which would form part of a $39m round it is raising. It reached a $34m first close in February this year, according to a regulatory filing.
The other two companies are social media management platform Sprinklr, which was valued at $1.8bn as of its last funding round in 2016, and CSC Generation, an e-commerce group that counts Panasonic and several venture capital firms and family offices as investors.
Carey Lai, who will focus on software deals for Conductive, was previously a director at Intel Capital, the corporate venturing unit owned by semiconductor technology producer Intel.
The firm’s other founding managing director is Paul Yeh, who was a partner at VC firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. He will oversee the firm’s hardware investments.