Sapphire Ventures, a US-based independent venture capital firm backed by software provider SAP, has raised almost $2bn and expanded its sports-focused investment team with the hire of Chloe Steinberg as a partner.
In its largest fundraise to-date, the firm said the closings of Sapphire Ventures Fund VI and associated co-investment vehicles took its assets under management to $8.8bn.
Sapphire invests in series B through late-stage enterprise technology companies in the US, Europe and Israel and would move beyond SAP as its limited partner (LP).
Nino Marakovic, CEO, partner and co-founder of Sapphire, said: “We look forward to this next step in our journey as we aim to expand our LP base across the globe and provide our LPs a best-in-class experience.”
It has hired Ralph DeBernardo as head of investor relations from Peak Rock Capital.
The firm has opened three new offices in Austin, London and San Francisco, with Sapphire’s new London-based team led by Andreas Weiskam.
As of November 24, Sapphire Ventures and Sapphire Sport had invested in more than 170 companies globally with more than 75 exits, including 23andMe, AllyO, Auth0, AvidXchange, Braze, Cazoo, Convercent, Integral Ad Science, JFrog, Kaltura, Localytics, monday.com, Phoenix Labs, Portworx, Punchh, Qubit Digital, Reonomy, Retail Solutions, Segment, Sumo Logic, Wandera and Wise.
The company has made a push into sports with the hire of Steinberg and promotion of Rico Mallozzi to vice-president of platform at Sapphire Sport.
Steinberg had previously been founder and principal of Equinox Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of lifestyle brands holding company Equinox Group.
