Corporate-backed venture capital firm Formation 8 has closed its second fund at $500m, reaching a target set in October, the New York Times reported on Wednesday.
The US-based firm was founded in 2011 and secured $448m for its first fund, which was backed by limited partners including conglomerates CJ Group and LS Group, and telecommunications company Korea Telecom. The investors in its latest fund have not been disclosed.
Two portfolio companies from the first fund have already provided Formation 8 with exits. Virtual reality technology developer Oculus VR was acquired by Facebook for $2bn in July, 10 days after Salesforce.com has closed the $390m purchase of relationship intelligence management company RelateIQ.
Formation 8 confirmed the fundraising in a blog post, stating: “We will continue to back entrepreneurs who are building industry transforming companies and leverage our networks to build bridges between Asia and the US.
“We seek to identify new platforms in old industries. We celebrate strengths of the full partnership, bringing the best from each perspective to bear, as we believe we are more than a collection of individual investors.”
Formation 8 also revealed that it has made its first investment out of the second fund, providing an undisclosed amount to South Korea-based mobile media company YelloMobile.