New Enterprise Associates has refilled its coffers.
The venture capital firm, which has backed Groupon and Diapers.com, has raised $2.6 billion for its latest fund. The fund, NEA’s 14th, is one of the largest in venture capital history, but the firm is not a stranger to giant funds. The last fund it raised in 2009, in the wake of the financial crisis, was $2.5 billion. That one, however, required about 7 months of fundraising efforts. NEA’s new fund only needed two months, according to Scott Sandell, a general partner at NEA.
“Our industry has been profoundly transformed in recent years, and a new model has quietly gained traction where more dollars are being committed to large funds that are global and diversified in nature,” Peter Barris, NEA’s managing general partner said in a statement on Tuesday.
NEA’s fund will follow the path of past funds, which were designed to be global and broad in their mandate.
The firm will invest in young and later stage start-ups around the world, with a focus on three main areas: information technology, health care and energy technology. According to Mr. Sandell, NEA will likely devote more capital to early stage start-ups than it has in previous years because businesses today are developing so rapidly because of the speed of change of the Internet and mobile technology.
“We can invest very quickly with our fund,” Mr. Sandell said. “Today, companies can create value with very little capital and can prove new business models very efficiently.”