NVP announces $650 mn investment fund

California: Norwest Venture Partners (NVP), a leading global technology venture capital firm, on Monday announced the formation of its most recent fund, Norwest Venture Partners X, LP.

The $650 million fund is targeted at early, mid and late stage investments with a concentration on emerging growth opportunities in the global information technology sector.

The addition of this new fund, the largest fund the firm has raised to date, brings NVP's total capital and commitments to more than $2.5 billion. NVP X follows the $400 million NVP IX Fund, which closed in late 2001.

"This latest fund will enable NVP to enter a new phase of growth. The size of NVP X is a testament to our belief in the potential of emerging markets in the U.S. and India," said Managing Partner at NVP, Promod Haque.

our belief in the potential of emerging markets in the U.S. and India,” said Promod Haque, managing partner at NVP.

"The convergence of such trends as globalization, consumer driven technology, mobility and increased broadband penetration in emerging markets such as India, makes this a diverse and vibrant investing climate," he added.

NVP’s seasoned team of investment professionals is actively evaluating disruptive, 'game changing' opportunities in the information technology sector.

The firm focuses on the following investment areas: semiconductor and components, enterprise and communication systems, software, services, consumer Internet and media.

NVP plans to expand the firm both in the U.S. and India with the closing of NVP X.

India Outlook

NVP has invested in more than 20 hybrid or cross border companies (companies that are headquartered in the U.S, but have a significant presence in India).

The firm has also made two direct investments in India during the last five months, and will be announcing additional investments in the first half of 2006.

Most recently, NVP invested in Yatra Online, the first online and centralized travel services company for the India market, and Persistent Systems, a leading provider of outsourced software product development.

The fund will continue to concentrate on the broad investment opportunities in the consumer, mobile and media sectors in India.

"While broadband and wireless penetration has greatly increased in India in the past few years, the rate of adoption will still continue to rise significantly. The opportunity for additional penetration combined with a sizeable middle class that has tremendous spending power makes this investment landscape in India extremely promising," said Haque.

Recent NVP exits include Airespace (acquired by Cisco for $450 million), Spinnaker Networks (acquired by Network Appliance for $300 million), Arbortext (acquired by PTC for $190 million), Corio (acquired by IBM for $182 million), and the initial public offering of Website Pros (Nasdaq: WSPI) in November 2005.

Over the last five years, Forbes has named three of NVP's managing and general partners (Promod Haque, George Still and Matthew Howard) to the annual Forbes Midas List as top dealmakers.

Promod Haque topped the list in 2004, and he was recently recognized by the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) for his commitment to furthering global markets in India.