Venture capital firm Norwest Venture Partners has closed its latest fund, Norwest Venture Partners XII, at $1.2bn, with US-based financial services firm Wells Fargo acting as the fund’s sole limited partner.
Norwest was founded in 1961 but Wells Fargo has been its only LP since 1989, Promod Haque, a senior managing partner at Norwest, told the Wall Street Journal. He added that despite external interest, Norwest had seen no need to add more LPs.
“We’ve had no issues raising funds from them,” Haque said. “When you have longevity and consistently produce results, there isn’t a lot of discussion that needs to happen.”
The fund will focus on early-to-late stage venture and growth equity investments across a range of sectors. Altogether, 11 of Norwest’s portfolio companies reached exit stage in 2011, including FireEye, which raised $304m in a September initial public offering, and Virtela, which was acquired by NTT Communications for $525m.
“We are experiencing another significant technology shift in the industry and it’s an exciting time to be an investor,” Norwest managing partner Matthew Howard said in a statement.
“The growing significance of such technologies as cloud, mobility, marketplaces and healthcare IT continue to create new venture and growth equity opportunities in an extremely promising investment climate.