Silicon valley venture firm Norwest closes $1.2bn fund

The Norwest Venture Partners XI fund is almost double the size of the firm’s previous $650m fund and will invest across a range of sectors and geographies. The funding brings Norwest’s capital and commitments to $3.7bn.

“The closing of NVP XI will enable us to further expand our growth by stage, region and sector. NVP is a global, multi stage firm dedicated to both domestic and international investments, and we believe that raising one global fund is a distinct advantage for our portfolio companies,” said Promod Haque, managing partner at Norwest.

Since the closing of its last fund, Norwest has expanded more deeply into emerging markets, hiring seven investment professionals in India and Israel, and opening offices in Mumbai, Bangalore and Herzelia. The firm also added three new hires to its US team.

“We believe now is a great time to invest, and we are seeing significant opportunities amidst a challenging economic environment – particularly in growth equity and in emerging markets such as India and China,” said Haque.

Norwest has made investments across sectors including technology, financial services, infrastructure, consumer, agriculture, manufacturing, telecommunications, retail and healthcare. In recent months, the firm has made a $24.6m investment into Indian financial firm Shriram City Union Finance, and led venture rounds for US storage systems company Avere Systems and social gaming company Playdom.

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