True Ventures, the early stage investment firm, has raised $205 million for its third fund.
With more than $600 million under management and over 100 companies successfully funded, the firm supports over 200 founders. The company’s blog announcing the fund lists its history of credentials, WordPress creator Automatic and Bright Roll in its first fund, to Typekit (acquired by Adobe), Assistly (acquired by Salesforce.com), and Urban Airship in its second fund.
In its blog post, the firm explained that it offered more than funding for companies, but a community of mutual support among its entrepreneurs. The firm launched True Founder Camp, a 24-hour marathon of speakers and collaboration. The firm also hosts True University, an annual conference to support its portfolio companies.
“From the beginning, True committed to providing the founders of our portfolio companies with the tools and resources they needed to build the strongest teams and businesses possible,” the firm explained on its blog. “From this vision emerged two areas of focus: community and education. What began as a dialogue among the founders of True’s portfolio companies has today grown into the True Founders community, a dynamic web of ideas, best practices, innovation, and friendship.”
This fund will concentrate on relatively small rounds of investment.
“Great founders of early stage technology companies can and often prefer to start their businesses with $2.5 million or less of initial capital,” the firm stated in its blog. “We set out to meet that need, creating funds small enough to work with entrepreneurs at the earliest stages but large enough to provide significant follow-on financing in later rounds.”
While the current IPO market following the Facebook fumble doesn’t breed a good atmosphere for startups, it does create considerable demand for the type of funding True Ventures offers.
“We’ve got exposure on both sides of the equation,” Phil Black, a partner at True Ventures, told the New York Times. “I think it’s an opportunity to be more active.”