Administration February 10, 2002

Carlyle Reported Ready to Shutter $600-Million VC Fund

October 2, 2002 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - A Wednesday announcement is expected from the Carlyle Group that it is closing its venture-capital fund Carlyle Venture Partners II LP with some $600 million in its coffers - the largest VC fund this year, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Reported by

Fred Schneyer

The WSJ said the majority of Carlyle Venture Partners II backers are institutional investors such as public pension funds, corporate pension funds and endowments. Certain wealthy, or “high net worth,” individuals and family offices also invested in the fund. The majority of investment in the fund came from investors based in North America and in Europe, the Journal said.

According to the WSJ story, the Carlyle fund will invest in companies involved in infrastructure and technology. To date, Carlyle Venture Partners II has invested about $117 million in 12 companies in sectors that include software, specialty semiconductors, storage, security, communications, and health-care technology.

For more stories like this, sign up for the PLANSPONSOR NEWSDash daily newsletter. 

VentureWire, an industry tracking service, said the new Carlyle fund is the largest raised so far in 2002, outpacing a $421-million fund from Prism Venture Partners of Westwood, Massachusetts and a $341-million fund from Centennial Ventures of Denver, the WSJ said.

Carlyle Venture Partners I, the predecessor fund, is about 90%-invested and Carlyle said that remaining commitments from that fund will be invested in follow-on rounds for existing CVP I companies.

Carlyle, which has offices in San Francisco and Washington, D.C., raised its first $210 million venture fund, Carlyle Venture Partners LP, in 1997.

Carlyle Group’s success comes at a time when many venture capitalists who couldn’t find appropriate outlets ended up returning uncommitted funds to their investors, the WSJ said.