Focus Ventures - VentureWire Professional

VentureWire Professional: "Focus Ventures is closing in on a new fund of up to $250 million, its first since 1999.

General Partner Steven Bird said the Palo Alto, Calif.-based later-stage investor is still talking to limited partners but already has closed on $185 million with another $40 million committed. It is looking to start investing the new pool in April, he said.

This will be the firm's third fund. It is smaller than the $465 million prior fund, but Focus has found a niche since the tech bubble in putting modest amounts of capital into technology companies financed by large, early-stage firms who want to make a substantial investment in the new round. Bird said that in most cases, prior investors want to provide half to three-quarters of the round."

Since closing Fund II in December 1999, Focus has backed 57 companies for the first time, according to VentureOne, a venture industry tracker owned by Dow Jones & Co., the publisher of VentureWire. Three of those have gone public, 11 have been acquired, 12 are out of business and the rest are still private and independent.