Title: Elevated Engagement: Battery Ventures Ups the Ante, Raising $1.25 Billion Across Two New Funds
Source URL: https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/06/battery-ventures-ups-the-ante-raising-1-25-billion-across-two-new-funds/
Original Content: Battery Ventures is a 35-year-old, global investment firm that tends to keep its nose down. Its bench of 10 general partners have mostly been operating quietly in the business for many years if not decades, yet none are household names.
Partly, that owes to the fact that Battery prefers to promote from within — often after many years of service. General Partner Neeraj Agrawal, who joined the firm in 2000, was made a general partner in 2007. Morocco native Morad Elhafed, joined the firm in 2008 and has since become a general partner at Battery.
Battery’s partners also more or less eschew social media, opting to rely instead on intensive research and aggressive behind-the-scenes networking to land the firm in interesting deals. In fact, its partners will proudly tell you that excluding seed-stage deals, Battery has invested in 385 companies since its founding and 59 of them have gone public while another 154 have merged or been acquired.
Certainly, its own investors approve. They’ve just committed to invest a fresh $1.25 billion with the firm across two funds:
- Battery Ventures XII, a stage-agnostic vehicle with $800 million to invest; and
- A side-fund - Battery’s seventh, which just closed with \(450 million. The first fund will see the firm write checks of anywhere from \)250,000 to $60 million. The latter is meant as a companion vehicle for giant growth rounds and private equity investments.
Yesterday, we talked with general partner Roger Lee - who joined Battery more than 16 years ago - about the firm’s new funds. We also talked about shifts in the industry and what they mean for the firm, from the rise of SoftBank to ICOs to a growing focus on diversity.
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Relevant for both early and later stage investments, Battery is investing across the spectrum from one fund over probably our last five or six funds, and it has worked out well for us. We take thematic deep dives into categories and find out where the best investments are, and sometimes they’re earlier stage. Sometimes, they’re Series C and Series D stage investments.
The firm believes that great companies are always expensive, and crappy companies are always cheap. Battery’s job is to find out which are great and can be category-defining businesses that are worth their valuations, and which are crappy.
When it comes to later-stage side fund investments, SoftBank - a technology investment company with a $100 billion Vision Fund - has become an increasingly common partner for Battery. This is partly due to the sheer size of the Vision Fund, but also because SoftBank’s global reach and aggressive approach to accelerating growth make it a valuable ally in international markets.
However, this does not come without its critics. As the company continues to grow and expand its investment portfolio, some have raised concerns about the amount of money being poured into certain industries and companies, particularly those within the tech sector. This has led some to question whether or not SoftBank’s investing strategies could potentially contribute to an over-saturated market, leading to a bubble that may eventually burst.
Despite these concerns, Battery remains focused on its investment strategy and continues to support and partner with companies in a variety of industries. The firm is particularly interested in e-sports, which have seen a significant increase in audience size and are expected to become an enormous market opportunity over the next decade.
Roger Lee, a general partner at Battery, was recently quoted as saying that
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