Norwest Venture Partners (NVP), the US-based venture capital firm sponsored by financial services firm Wells Fargo, closed its largest ever fund at $1.5bn yesterday.
NVP was originally founded as a VC affiliate of financial services provider Norwest Corporation, before the latter merged with Wells Fargo in 1998. The merged bank has been its sole external investor since then, something that appears to be continuing in the latest fundraise.
Norwest Venture Partners XIV will invest from seed to late stage in consumer, enterprise and healthcare technology developers. The firm’s last fund, Norwest Venture Partners XIII, closed at $1.2bn at the start of 2016.
Companies in which NVP has invested since then include real estate transaction platform OpenDoor, high-grade mattress producer Casper, app-based food deliver service Swiggy and customer relationship management software provider ProsperWorks.
NVP is undergoing an expansion that will involve the opening of a new office in South Park, San Francisco next month, and has hired Parker Barrile and Scott Beechuk as partners, the former for its internet and consumer team and the latter for its enterprise team.
The firm has also promoted Jon Kossow, who joined NVP in 2009 to develop its growth equity practice, from general partner to managing partner, and Lisa Wu, who joined in 2012, to a partner role on its venture capital team.