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European venture firm Advent Venture Partners holds first close on £128m

London-based venture capital firm Advent Venture Partners has announced the first closing of its latest fund, Advent Private Equity Fund IV, with total commitments of £128m. The target is £200m.

Investors include Access Capital Partners, the European Investment Fund, Pantheon, Westport Private Equity, Alpinvest Partners and Swiss Re.

Advent focuses on early and later stage opportunities in the information technology, communications technology and life sciences sectors, primarily in the UK and other Western European markets but to a lesser extent in the United States.

Advent chairman Sir David Cooksey said, '2004 has proved to be a challenging fund raising environment for the venture capital sector. We are particularly pleased to have the continued support of so many of our existing investors, as well as having the opportunity to welcome new investors.'

'We believe that now is a particularly good time to be investing in European based technology companies and that there are excellent opportunities to back experienced management teams at attractive valuations,' he continued.

Advent Private Equity Fund III, the previous fund, closed in February 2001 and is close to being fully committed.

In October this year Advent announced that it has successfully exited investments in portfolio companies Upstate Group and DNA Research Innovations.

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