Former Irish mobile network boss Barry Maloney’s London-based venture capital fund Balderton Capital has raised an additional US$430m, bringing its funds under management up to close to US$2bn.
This is Balderton’s fourth fund, having raised US$550m in December 2006, US$375m in July 2004 and US$500m in May 2000.
Based in London, Balderton now manages approximately US$1.8bn in committed venture capital (VC), making it one of the largest VC firms outside the US.
Since its inception in 2000, Balderton has invested in over 70 companies across a wide variety of technology sectors and geographies, including Europe, the US and China.
Notable investments include Bebo, (the social networking site, sold to AOL for US$850m), Betfair (the online betting exchange), Codemasters (the video games publisher), MySQL (the open-source database business, sold to Sun for US$1bn) and Setanta Sports (the European sports broadcaster).
“This is a great start for the year for Balderton in what is clearly a difficult economic environment,” Barry Maloney, general partner at Balderton, and former head of Esat Digifone in Ireland (now O2).
“Our first fund was completed at the height of the dotcom bust and we went on to invest in some of the strongest companies in our portfolio today.
“Each economic cycle provides opportunities for the best entrepreneurs and we are excited to be able to invest in tomorrow’s success stories in this, our fourth fund,” Maloney said.
By John Kennedy
